Fairy Cube, Volume 2 by Kaori Yuki

Ian, Rin and Ainsel talk with Eriya's grandmother, who listens to Ian's story and tells her own, of growing up in Ireland and her encounter with a fairy named the Cancanagh. She was blind, but she could tell that he was seducing young women, a different one each time. When she offered him her own life, he refused, saying children smelled of milk. He promised to come for her if she became beautiful when she grew up, but he never did. Devastated, she moved far away, to Japan, and yet, Kaito might be that same fairy...

Ian's aunt, Lise, shows up and breaks into Ian's home with the help of Rin and Ian. There, they find Ian's father, chained to a wall and starving by his son, Tokage. Eventually Lise tells them that she is a fairy, named Leannan Sidhe, who lives on the life and creativity of humans. Her sister, Ian's mother, was also a Leannan Sidhe who lived off their father. But she fell in love with him and wanted to stay with him forever. Doing so would have eventually killed Ian's father as she sucked his life force and creativity away. But while she was with him, he was phenomenally creative. Now, though, she is missing, and Lise is looking for her.

Tokage, meanwhile, has discovered the link between Rin and Ian, and sets a trap for her and curses her so that whenever she touches Ian, she produces flames. She had told Tokage that she and Ian shared a pure love, so now, he gleefully informs her, he will give her a chance to prove it. Now, she will never be able to touch him again.

But she fights back, and Ian attacks Tokage, with dark wings sprouting from his back. Rin blacks out and when she comes to, a fairy named Raven tells her that he needs Ian's soul to perform the sacrifice that will help the Golob Group bring their remaking of the world into reality. Meanwhile, inside the spell-warded school, Tokage tells Ian how his mother got rid of him because he was a fairy son and she wanted to stay in the human world. She buried him in a portal to fairy, and he was raised an outcaste in the fairy world. But when he was used by a town of fairies as a sacrifice to their God, to keep him imprisoned within the earth. Tokage called on the God's power and slew them all, including the woman who raised him, as she was also going to sacrifice him. But killing the woman who raised him and showed him only kindness seems to have driven him insane.

Rin, to save Ian's life, agrees to go with Raven, knowing Ian will rescue her. Lise helps Ian recover from the attack, and Ian is happy now that he knows he was never delusional about fairies. He understands why Tokage is angry, but cannot forgive his actions.

Meanwhile, Rin meets Shina, the woman and fairy behind the plan to kill all the humans on Earth. While she is at Golob Group, though, she meets a young girl with green hair and red eyes who looks only about six or seven years old. Yet the girl says she is missing her son, Ian, and needs help finding him. Could this be Ian's mother, somehow? Rin also meets a little contrary fairy named Derek, who befriends her when the girl tells him not to like Rin. Rin uses Derek to send a message to Ian, who realizes that in his rush to vengeance against Tokage, he risks becoming just like him. But Ainsel helps him see and we get to see more of Kaito's past. Meanwhile Rin decides to pretend to support Golob Group in hopes of helping Ian stop their plan. As Ian and Eriya's grandmother talk some more, they realize that Rin has become the face of Golob Group's ritual. Can they stop the other fairies in time?

I liked this book, which reveals a lot of background on the characters and shows Ian's importance to the fairies both to stop the plan to kill the humans, and to fulfill it. During the book, Tokage moves from being the main villain to being a supporter of Golob Group, although he still does plenty of nasty things. But he's becoming less important to the storyline than the plot to kill all the humans in the world so that the fairies become resurgent.

There are no simple characters here, excepting maybe Ian and Rin. All the other characters have complex pasts and conflicting loyalties. Some of them are tortured by what they have seen and done, and by how they have achieved their goals. Needless to say, this is what attracted me to Kaori Yuki's writing in the first place, as part of the Earl Cain saga, the Godchild series, and now with this one. The story goes just fast enough without feeling rushed, and yet has me anxious to read more. I'll be looking forward to more volumes of this series even if I don't think it will be overly long in toto.

Fairy Cube, Volume 1 by Kaori Yuki

Ian is a young man who believes in fairies, even if no one else around him does. He remembers his mother having green hair and red eyes, and his father saying that his mother seemed like a fairy to him. But now his mother is gone, and his father, once an award-winning novelist, has been reduced to teaching in school to make a living.

But a chance encounter with Rin, once Ian's childhood friend, brings him back to remembering how much he loved fairies. Rin and her parents had moved away from Ian when Rin was younger, but now Rin and Ian rediscover Ian's belief in fairies.

But something else is happening. Ian keeps having glimpses of a green-haired, red-eyed boy near his father, and people are dying in the city with their blood spattered across their bodies and backs in a pattern much like fairy wings. One day, Ian stumbles across just such a body and witnesses a one-eyed man pick up something from the body. Ian follows him into a shop and discovers that the man is the proprietor of the shop, and he was picking up a crystal cube with an insect inside it.

Unnerved by the man and the shop, Ian flees, but before he goes, the man gives him another cube with a little green lizard with red eyes inside it. He warns Ian against losing it or throwing it away, telling him he will be cursed forever if he does so. Ian doesn't know what to do, but keeps it anyway.

Later the next day, Ian is stabbed in the back by his father over an argument about fairies. He finds himself dying, and his spirit is stranded outside his body, but his body comes back to life, animated from within by the spirit of his brother, the spirit boy with the green hair and red eyes he has been seeing around his father.

With nowhere else to go, Ian returns to the shop, needing help to regain his body. The proprietor tells Ian it is true that he helped Ian's brother, Tokage, take over his body, because he and Tokage had a deal. But now he can help Ian.

Their deal-making is interrupted by the arrival of another fairy, this one female, named Ainsel, She looks much more like a traditional fairy, being small and female and delicate, with wings. But she hates humans and tries to attack Ian for being too close to the one she loves, the proprietor of the shop, Kaito. But she cannot control her magical power and begins destroying the shop, so Kaito sends her and Ian into the Otherworld to save his shop.

Here, Ian can once again touch things, which he could not as a spirit. Kaito tells he and Ainsel that because he had to act quickly, he does not know where he put them in the otherworld, so they will have to make their own way back. Ainsel is unhappy, but she and Ian begin their trek to a portal located beneath an Oak tree. On the way there, they encounter a lost fairy child, who Ian insists on saving. But the child is a trap set by a fairy hunter called a Nucklavee. The child is actually a badger spirit, but Ian doesn't blame the badger for the trap, and he cuts the net the Nucklavee has imprisoned the Badger-spirit's mate in as well as another animal spirit. Ainsel defeats the Nucklavee with her power to help Ian.

Ainsel is stunned that Ian, a human, would go out of his way to help a fairy, and she finds that she doesn't hate him at all. In fact, she would rather help him, for his innocence and goodwill. Once they make it back to Kaito's shop, Ian gets another body to inhabit, since Tokage has Ian's, the body of a much younger boy named Eriya Barrett.

Ian agrees to take over the body to get revenge on Tokage, and now must get Rin to believe who he really is. But Tokage, in his body, is hanging around with Rin an awful lot. Can he get Rin to believe him without revealing the secret of his identity to Tokage? And what about the Fairies plan to eliminate the problem of humans destroying the earth by destroying all humans everywhere? Can he prevent that from happening, or must he allow it to happen to get his revenge on Tokage?

And when the woman who is the grandmother of Eriya Barrett reveals that she also has the gift of fairy sight, how will Ian deal with this sudden complication to his plans?

I rather liked this series, which took on Celtic Fairies with a uniquely japanese twist. It combines fairies of the Celtic mold (like the Nucklavee) and a sort of "crane Maiden" motif of the heavenly (or in this case, fairy) wife who stays with a man but is forced to flee. In this case, she leaves behind a half-human son with the gift of sight and a birthmark of butterfly wings on his back, which his father later burns to take away the reminder of his wife and fairies.

Ian, though, pays the greatest price for this contravention of the rules of men and fairies. Abandoned by his mother, hated by his father, and scorned and shunned by everyone else, he ends up losing his body to Tokage, his twin brother. And yet, with everything that has happened to him, he still has more hardship to face in regards to Rin and Tokage and his mother and fairies. But how will it change him?

I can't wait to read more of this series, and it seems Ian will have some hard choices to make in the time ahead.

Harmony's Way by Lora Leigh

The woman who calls herself Harmony Lancaster has another name, the name of the famed Breed assassin, Death. But once she was a little girl, raised in the Breed labs to be an assassin by her mother, the lead scientist of the geneticists who created the Breed. Her brother, Jonas, was her mother's favorite one, petted, cooed over and never allowed to see the rot deep within that was their mother.

Jonas knew the other Breed were mistreated, and planned an escape from the labs. But it was Harmony that discovered a secret: Leo, the first Breed ever created, was somehow still alive. And another, that her mother knew of Jonas' plans to escape, through traitors among the other Breed, and planned to have him killed when he tried to escape. For Harmony, this was too much. She loved Jonas, but she knew he would never believe her if she tried to convince him how evil their mother was, so the young girl who was already an accomplished assassin slew her own mother to save her brother's life. But not only her mother. She also killed the Breed traitors who were planning to betray her brother and several of the lesser scientists, then escaped from the facility herself.

Since then, she has lived almost completely on her own, only surfacing to kill those who abuse children and leaving once they are dead, vanishing back into the darkness. But now she has been caught by her own people, and the Breed Council, headed by her brother, are fed up with her. Stay on the straight and narrow for at least six months, they insist, or they will kill her for her crimes.

Feeling that she is without a choice, she is taken from the Breed Labs in Virginia to Broken Butte, New Mexico, where she is to be a Breed Liaison to the local Sherriff's office and to the Sherriff himself, But a chance encounter in a bar the night before she is to meet her new Boss shakes her sense of herself, for the man she finds is not only hot, he makes her want him just from his scent. He takes her home, and they fall madly in bed together, and Harmony can't believe how she is acting around this man.

The next day, of course, she finds that the man she shared a one-night stand with is also her boss, Lance Jacobs. But she finds she can't stop thinking about what they shared, and whenever she so much as breathes his scent, she finds herself getting ragingly hot. But there is someone on her trail, and a preacher who hates and fears breeds is stirring up trouble for her by killing people using Death's signature, not knowing that she actually *is* Death. And when she finds out she's pregnant with Lance's child, she might have to give up her rootless ways to save what is most precious to her.

Lance certainly isn't going to let her go, and the power of the winds that runs in his family has made certain he can hear her pain no matter where he goes. The love and passion he feels for this beautiful, wounded woman compels him to fight for her and the love they share. But she has many enemies and many people chasing her. Will he have to sacrifice his life for hers and the life they have made together? Or can they finally build a life toether, where her former assassin's life does not intrude?

I liked this book, which was hot and filled with an interesting story that fleshes out the background of the breeds themselves and how they finally managed to escape the labs where they were grown and imprisoned. The overarching story in this one is the Breeds own uncertainty of how their lives work. Once a breed is mated, aging seems to either stop entirel or slow to an incredible degree. This, of course, is going to make the normal humans nervous, so Jonas, Harmony's brother, is working to find out the truth, and to do that, he needs to find the first Breed, who it seems is still alive, having been mated.

The way he intends to find out, though, is very distasteful. He plans to mate his sister with Lance, and settle her down thereby, then use the threat to her mate and child to make her give up the information and files she has on the first breed. She does so, but nearly loses both in the process. But her brother still thinks it was the right thing to do, making me wonder if he's more like his manipulative mother than he thinks. The next book seems like it will focus on him, and I have a feeling he won't escape how his manipulative ways impacted others when he finds his own mate. He embodies the Alpha Hero who also happens to cross the line into heavy manipulation and telling others what to do, not caring the cost.

The romance aspects in this book are cut rather short by the way Breeds mate, essentially, it boils down to a chemical and hormonal reaction that seeks to make them have sex with their mate over and over until the female gets pregnant. It doesn't even seem that they have to like each other much, just boink. In that, it seemed to me that breeds fall victim to their body chemistry and hormones, and not so much to love. But that may be just me. The sex is ultra-hot, and that's a pretty good reason to read it in my book. I also liked the storyline, though because of the specifics of breed mating and reproduction, I felt this was less romance and more erotica. Don't get me wrong. I liked the book, but I don't really feel it's a perfect fit with the "Romance" category.

The Hollywood Book of Lists by Stephen J. Spignesi

Did you ever wonder what the 25 "most Dangerous Films Ever" were? Or wonder which Hollywood stars were related, and to whom? Or how about the real names of stars better known as...?

"The Hollywood Book of Lists" is the book for you, then, as it is filled with these sorts of lists and many, many more. Or even if you just enjoy a good movie or some great old movies, you'll still find plenty in this book to pique your interest and intrigue you mightily.

For instance, what does the AFI consider the best 100 films ever made (well, as of 2000, which is when this book was published)? Not only will you find out, but you'll find author Spignesi's own list and how he feels about the top 100, and whether, in his opinion, a movie deserves to be higher on the list, lower on the list, or not there at all. No surprise that he disagrees with the AFI's #1 top film, Citizen Kane.

In addition, you'll find out the fates of many deceased entertainers, and where some of those who were cremated have their ashes scattered. You'll even find the Pope's Top Ten movie list. And you thought the church looked down on the movie industry for promoting all that sex, violence, drinking and drug-using!

Every list in this book delights and informs at the same time. If you didn't know before, you'll find out who "Alan Smithee" is and why seeing his name on a movie is an almost sure sign it is going to suck, bigtime. From the seven most true to life Mob movies (and one TV series) to 40 Cameos of the Director you'll find in Alfred Hitchcock's films, this book is truly something you'll read and refer back to on a fairly regular basis. It may even inspire you to hold a movie weekend and discuss your own movie list!

Lord Tophet: A Shadow Bridge Novel by Gregory Frost

Leodora is the daughter of the legendary shadow puppeteer named Bardsham. Long ago, her father disappeared, and she was raised by his former helper and associate, Soter. Now, she has formed a company of her own, with Soter, the musician Diverus, who no longer knows his real name, and some of her father's other former associates.

She has passed over the Bridge that links the spans, and has come to the realm of Colemaigne. Colemaigne had once hosted her father, but was blighted by an attack by the God of Chaos, Lord Tophet. The reason for the attack is unknown. Some say her father insulted Lord Tophet, or stole from him, but no one knows the truth. But when she arrives in Colemaigne, she walks out onto the Dragon span, walking the labyrinth that is the presence of the Gods.

There, she has a vision and recieves a gift of a pendant that talks in the form of a golden lion. Diverus is drawn into the vision with her. He wants to know his real name, but has forgotten it. When both return to Colemaigne, the Gods have restored part of the city. This emboldens the people, who flock to the newly restored theatre, where Leodora will perform, under her stage name of "Jax".

But Diverus' fascination with the Shadow Bridge visible from where they entered Colemaigne leads them both into a shadow world that may take all their cleverness and ingenuity to get out of, and may lead Lord Tophet back to Leonora and Colemaigne. But can she defeat the world-spanning power of a God of Chaos and free her mother from imprisonment in a shadow world.

This was an interesting read for me. The book is one tale, filled with many other tales that entertain and delight, but the story doesn't always seem to be going anywhere. It circles and eddies, drawing back amongst itse;f and then turning into a new direction.

There was a lot in the story that puzzled me, such as the span, the bridge, and the bowl with the labyrinth that seem to be there on every span. I'm not sure how the world fits together or even what it looks like, and that contributes to the strange, almost dream-like nature of this particular volume. I'm not sure if these things are even explained in "Shadow Bridge", the previous volume, mainly because I haven't read it.

The setting is mainly fantasy, but as described, it could also be science fiction or speculative fiction. What the book is mainly about is secrets. Everyone in the book has secrets, from Leonora/Jax to Diverus to Soter and even Lord Tophet himself. In many cases, these secrets end up causing problems, but in Jax's case, her secret ends up saving everyone, although in the end, she leaves everything and everyone behind, even the puppets that make up her craft.

I found the story confusing and strangely enlightening at the same time. Like the book itself, my reaction is a study in contrasts, and the feeling I got from the book isn't of the sort that makes it easy to say, "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" or "I hated it. Conversely, I have no strong feelings about the story either way, so I can't exactly say I'll be recommending this to anyone.

Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka with Michael Lark

People often assume that Batman takes care of all the crime in Gotham City. But he can't be everywhere, and so the members of the Gotham Police take care of daytime crime and crime involving unsuperpowered criminals. This, is their story.

When Detectives Driver and Fields are investigating an apartment looking for a missing girl for a tip they recieved from a snitch, they are surprised to find one of the occupants is Victor Fries, also known as Mr. Freeze. Freeze kills Charlie Driver with his Freeze Gun, turning him to ice, and freezes Marcus Fields' hands to his gun, but leaves him alive.

The Captain wants to call in Batman, but Marcus begs him not to. Charlie, his partner, called the Bat-Signal demoralizing to the Squad, since it was clear that Bat-man had a higher clearance rate for his cases than the cops did. It's a signal of their own failure to use it. He begs the Captain not to turn it on until sundown. Give the cops at the precinct that long. The Captain reluctantly agrees.

Everyone on the precinct fans out, looking for clues, wanting to solve this for Charlie. They know it's something big, but none of the leads seem to pan out. Until Marcus sees an invitation on his desk that brings back something Fries said to him, and he realizes what Mr. Freeze's target is: Comissioner Gordon's speech to the latest graduating class of cops... and knows he must bring in Batman, who takes out Freeze before he can put the chill on the entire building.

After that, the department must track down a firebug, and the suspect in the murder of a fifteen year old babysitter killed in the park as she walked home from a job watching children. Who could it have been? The homeless man she befriended and spoke to regularly? Some lowlife who only saw a vulnerable target, easy to attack? But when the cases suddenly merge, they discover how low a man can sink in his efforts to keep a secret...

Finally, Reneé Montoya is a good cop, formerly partner to Harvey Bullock and now partnered with Chris Allen, a black cop. Reneé is having difficulties in both her personal life and her professional life. For one, she's a lesbian, and her parents would condemn her to hell if they ever found out, and Marty Lipari, a suspect in a rape case, won the case and is now suing her. But when she finds pictures of her and her lover have been sent to the station house and her parents, she finds her stress levels rising. Luckily, her brother smooths things over with her parents, but the other cops, with the exception of her partner, needle her about her "leanings".

Then, her backup piece is stolen from her apartment, and she gets into an altercation with Marty Lipari, who has been taking pictures of her and her lover, and who threatens the safety of her lover. Later that night, Lipari is killed, which gets her into an IAD investigation. She is arrested, but before she can even go to jail, she is broken out of the bus and taken to the swank apartment of none other than Two-Face, who she met and worked with during the time when Gotham became No Man's Land. She was able to connect with Harvey Dent, the good, normal side of Two-Face, and he apparently fell in love with her. Two-Face, Harvey's insane alternate persona has as well, and orchestrated a campaign to remove her from everything she loves and values- her family, her job, her reputations, and even her lover, and then offers her a life with him in return. Who can protect her from this crazy criminal and will this experience finally bring her out of the closet for good?

I enjoyed this graphic novel very much, and found it to be wonderfully gritty and realistic... well, if you discount the supervillains. And supervillains do permeate the pages of the stories, as much as Batman does. Even the second story, about the Firebug, revolves around a costume used by a firebug villain, who sold it when he needed money. The costume becomes the catalyst for the new owner's need to stand out, and leads to the murder of the babysitter.

I found this reasonable for a title set in the most crime-ridden of all the DC Universe's cities (well until the introduction of Blüdhaven, anyway). Costumed criminals, both super-powered and gadget-powered, run rampant on the streets of Gotham, and even Batman can't account for them all. In a way, it reminded me a bit of the Savage Dragon comic, which is about a super-powered guy who also happens to be a cop, but in the way that the story is about solving crimes and characters who just happen to be cops.

And none of the characters here are superhuman in any way. They fight the crooks of Gotham not with gadgets or superpowers but simple human intelligence and deductive ability. There's something almost noble about that, but the characters would tell you it's nothing of the sort, it's just what they do, every single day. Buy this series. It's intriguingly full of the sort of dilemmas that real cops in a city with a super-powered crime spree might experience, and makes you look at the superhero genre in a different way.

Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald, Flight 714 and Tintin and the Picaros by Hergé

The last three finished novels of Tintin are collected in one place. These are the last three stories written by Hergé, with the exception of one unfinished story "Tintin and the Alph-Art".

In "The Castafiore Emerald", Tintin's friend Captain Haddock is on a walk with Tintin when he meets a bunch of gypsies by the local rubbish dump. Captain Haddock first assumes that the gypsies camp there because they want to, but when he finds out that they have been denied camping rights in any other place, he invites them to stay on the fields of his estate. On his arrival home, he injures himself falling on a broken step on his grand staircase. So when he recieves word that Signora Castafiori is coming to stay with him, he tries to flee immediately, only to injure himself again, much worse, on the same step.

With her, the Duchess brings a famous jewel, the Castafiori Emerald. During her stay, the Emerald goes missing, and Tintin must find out who might have taken it. Of course, the Gypsies are blamed first, but Tintin shows them to be innocent, while Captain Haddock must deal with the rumor that he is about to marry Signora Castafiori inadvertantly started by the newspapermen's interview with Cuthbert Calculus.

In "Flight 714", Tintin and Captain Haddock are travelling to China when they stop in Djakarta. There, they meet an old friend, Sven Skut, who happens to be a pilot for the richest man in the world, Mr Carreidas, who also happens to be someone who has never laughed. But Professor Calculus makes him laugh, twice, so he offers to jet them to China in his personal Jet. Unable to refuse, they board the plane, but Mr. Carreidas's secretary has made plans to betray his employer, and the plane is forced down on a small Pacific island.

On the island is a man named Rastapopulous, who wants to steal the identification number and password to Carreidas's Swiss Bank account, but the man he hires to get the information out of Carreidas, Doctor Krollspell, has manufactured a truth serum to get Carreidas to reveal the necessary numbers. But instead, all it does is make him talk about all the bad deeds he did in life and call himself a monster. When Rastapopulous is accidentally injected with the same serum, he does the same, sending the two men into a fevered competition over who is worse and more of a monster.

Meanwhile, Captain Haddock and Tintin escape from captivity with the help of Snowy, and save Professor Calculus and the others and get them to safety. But the actions of Rastapopulous and his goons set off an eruption of the island's volcano. Who will help them escape in time? Could it be... aliens?

In "Tintin and the Picaros", Tintin is in San Theodoros with Professor Calculus and Captain Haddock, who is suddenly finding he can't stomach the taste of his favorite kind of alcohol. In fact, it nearly makes him sick. The reason they are in San Theodoros is because they heard that Bianca Castafioré and her maid and pianist, along with Thompson and Thomson, have been imprisoned by the ruling powers there, and they are there to try to free them.

However, the man in charge, Captain Sponsz, has set a trap for them and they soon find themselves accused of various crimes. Escaping, they meet a man named Alcazar, whose Picaros are threatening to overthrow the government. But he has a problem. The government has been dropping lots of booze into the jungle, and the man have all become massive drunks. When Professor Calculus steps forward and reveals that it is because of a pill that he developed that Captain Haddock can no longer stand the taste of Alcohol, Tintin makes a deal with Alcazar to free his men from their alcohol addiction and allow them to take over the government and save Signorina Castafiori and her troup and the Thompson/Thomsons. However, even as they sneak the Picaros into the capital in the guise of a band that is to perform at the execution of the Thompson/Thomsons, will things ever really change in San Theodoros?

This was an interesting set of stories, and much more well-rounded and well-drawn than the first book I read. Each is slightly different and shows Hergé's illustrating style and ability to create plots. Each has a different sort of enemy and "The Castafioré Emerald" is an example of a story with many different red herrings that pad out the length of the story, but the reader never feels resentful about the padding, even after the true villain is revealed. The second is a more straightforward adventure story, with aliens, but done in such a way as to make the aliens believable.

In the last story, we begin to see some of the innocence that drew many people to the character of Tintin begin to erode somewhat, as Tintin actually helps put in motion a coup merely to rescue his friends from Prison. Admittedly, he demands that no one be killed during the coup, and that the deposed leader be tried in the courts, but the ending leads us to question how much has really changed for the country with the deposing of one supposedly "Corrupt" leader. Has one just been replaced with another? It's a rather disquieting ending for a Tintin story.

For those who love Tintin, this volume is a welcome treat. The stories do make you wonder, though, if Hergé's future Tintin stories would have continued the trend of making Tintin more adult and less innocent. With the next story, "Tintin and the Alph-Art" unfinished, we do have to wonder.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Graphic novel by Hayden Blackman, Brian Ching, Bong Dazo and Wayne Nicholas

This graphic novel is based on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game, currently on the shelves at your local electronic games retailer. I haven't played the game, since I don't own a PC or a videogame console (I'm a Mac person, actually). The story concerns a Sith apprentice of Darth Vader named Starkiller, whom Vader has raised from a child. Vader uses Starkiller to hunt down and kill Jedi who survived the Purge of the Jedi. Vader has raised Starkiller to have no loyalty but to him, but when Starkiller is sent to murder a Jedi named Rahm Kota, he is attacked by a droid named PROXY, in the holographic guise of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Starkiller defeats Kenobi, and it is revealed that PROXY has been programmed by Vader to try and kill his apprentice as often as possible to force Starkiller to excel. But somehow, PROXY also has the desire to help Starkiller.

Vader has also given Starkiller a new Pilot, Juno Eclipse, who formerly led the Imperial Forces into battle on a planet named Callos. After a bit of verbal sparring, they leave for the mission along with PROXY. Once there, Starkiller quickly confronts the general and battles him. During the battle, the general tells him that his path will not always be with the Dark Side, and that his future will lie with Kota himself. But Starkiller knows that Kota didn't die, even if he tells Vader that Kota is dead. Afterwards, Vader sends Starkiller on another mission, this one to hunt down Shaak Ti, a member of the Jedi Council, on the planet Felucia.

Felucia was a world of rampant plant life, but it had been infected with the Dark Side of the Force, along with all of its inhabitants. Some of them are not yet infected, like Shaak Ti's apprentice, Maris Brood. Starkiller meets Shaak Ti, who falls into the Belly of a Sarlaak during their battle and is presumably destroyed.

When Starkiller goes to meet Vader once more, Vader says the Emperor's fleet has arrived, when Starkiller asks where they will stand against the Emperor, Vader stabs Starkiller with his lightsaber. PROXY is taken over by the Emperor, who urges Vader to kill his apprentice. Vader throws Starkiller through a window and into the void, satisfying Palpatine, but later has Starkiller brought back and revived and healed. PROXY, in Vader's form, tells Starkiller to gather the Empire's foes, and then, when he has resumed his usual form, tells him that the ship has been set to dive into the sun, removing any sign or trace of Starkiller.

On their way out of the ship, Starkiller finds Juno Eclipse imprisoned and awaiting death as a traitor. Against PROXY's advice, he rescues Juno, then seeks out Rahm Kota in a bar on Cloud City. The Jedi Master has been blinded and become a drunk, but Starkiller convinces the old man to help him. Rahm Kota sends him to the planet of Kasshyk, where he finds a hut that seems familliar. He enters the hut and has a vision of the past. When he comes out again, he has become a merciless killing machine.

Kota sends Starkiller to Leia Organa, who sends him back to Felucia, where Senator Bail Organa has been captured by Shaak Ti's apprentice Maris Brood, now infected and gone to the dark side. Starkiller tracks her down, and kills the Rancor she enslaved to her will. After a battle with Maris herself, Maris surrenders and promises to leave the planet and the dark side behind... as long as he doesn't kill her. Starkiller lets her go, noting that she will still have to remember what she did on Felucia.

Afterwards, Vader gives Starkiller another assignment, to embolden the rebels against the Empire by attacking the starship shipyards at Raxis Prime. Juno overhears and is incensed. How can Starkiller still be Vader's slave after he sentenced her to death? She tells him she already left one old life behind... don't make her leave another.

At Raxis Prime, Starkiller succeeds in taking down the factory and pulling an entire Star Destroyer down on it, causing massive damage. But this same act emboldens the Rebels and brings them into Alliance on the planet Corellia, where Darth Vader shows up to capture the Rebels. PROXY, looking like Obi-Wan Kenobi attacks Vader but is defeated and deactivated until found by Bail Organa and Juno Eclipse. Juno found Starkiller, who had vanished during the fight, and they deduced that Vader set up the plan to make himself more valuable to the Emperor.

He tracks Vader to a place on the outer Rim, where the Death Star is being built, and leaves Juno to fight against Vader and the Emperor, who were in collusion all along. He fights them with the help of Rahm Kota, but holds off both Vader and Palpatine to let the others go to safety while he remains behind to die. But his sacrifice inspires the Rebels, and they adopt his symbol as the symbol of the Rebel Forces. Juno is left behind with her memories of him, and knowing, from Rahm Kota, that she was the one shining, bright thing in Starkiller's life.

This was an interesting graphic novel that, of course, felt more than a little squished, storywise. Not much time is spent on subplots, what with the story of Starkiller to cram in, and the perfidy of Vader and the Emperor. Still, from the reviews of the game I have read and listened to, it seems they hit all the high notes. But the story felt a bit, well, soulless. And that may be because it was taken from a computer game storyline. Although much of the game's storyline was kept in the book, some parts, like the plot about how Starkiller ended up as Vader's apprentice in the first place, was not retained, and the character went from being the son of a Jedi named Marek to being the son of Rahm Kota (as far as I could tell). While it manages to tell the story of the video game well, that's all it remains, and as such, was less successful as a story for me.

For Star Wars completists, you will want to run out and buy this graphic novel. Otherwise, give it a miss. It doesn't really add anything to the Star Wars Canon that you can't find better elsewhere. The story is superficial gloss over a screamingly thin base, and you'll wonder why Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker are supposed to be so great if Starkiller could pull down whole Star Destroyers out of the sky. Budget cuts? In any case, one final interesting note: Starkiller was supposed to be Luke Skywalker's original last name.

The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland

Morgan of Melksham thinks of herself as no more than a shieldmaiden. She's trained long and hard to become an elite swordswoman, but as far as she can remember, her past is a mystery, even to her. She was requested by Miach of Neroche, the youngest brother of the Emperor of Neroche, to possibly wield a magical singing sword called the Sword of Angesand. But, unwarned by Miach and hating magic with an almost pathological hatred, she broke the sword to bits on the edge of a stone table and soon after was poisoned by Miach's nemesis and author of the attacks on Meroche, Lothar of Wychweald. If Miach did not want her to die, he had to transport her to someone who could heal her when his magic could not.

He sent her to Nicholas of Lismór, who had raised Morgan from the time she was young. Nicholas, unknown to Morgan, is a powerful mage, and he worked to heal her from the poison that should have killed her. Now, somewhat healed, she withdraws for the rest of her convalescence to the Tower of her tutor in swordplay, Weger. Weger is an uncompromising man with a strong distaste for magic and a keep located in an area that is completely dead to magic. Morgan expects to be thrown out of the keep when Weger sees how weak she has become, but instead he allows her to recover, and does not, to her surprise, throw her out.

When Miach shows up at the Tower to learn swordplay from Weger, she is both delighted and angry to see him. She likes him a great deal, but is unable to get past the fact that he lied to her about who and what he was, and he lied about what he wanted her to do. But Miach's ability to survive Weger's harsh teaching and even begin to thrive and improve impresses her, and his ability to forgo sleep to maintain the wards of Neroche with his magic also impresses her, although she cannot bring herself to admit it.

But another one of Weger's students is one of Lothar of Wychweald's many by-blows, and he seeks to kill Miach in order to curry favor with his father. But even though Miach has only been a student of Weger's for a few days, he has enough skill to beat off Searbhe, but the young man keeps trying, until Weger himself throws the young man out. Weger also knows who Miach is, and is not sure he approves of the young mage, especially since he also has deep feelings for Morgan and wants to win her for himself. Morgan comes to realize Weger's feelings but knows that to choose Weger would mean a retreat into a safe life, and she finds she wants to know who she truly is.

In a night conversation between Weger, Morgan and Miach, Morgan discovers that her mentor in swordsmanship is also a powerful mage, and she is shocked, since Weger hates Magic and mages as much as she does. But the knowledge that Weger is over a thousand years old frightens her. For someone as afraid of magic as she is, it is like one of the stones under her feet suddenly being gone, and when the time comes for Miach to leave, along with the brand on his forehead signifying that he passed Weger's training, he also finds Morgan coming with him.

She and Miach return to the keep of Nicholas of Lismór, where Morgan learns more about her past than she ever wanted to know. Her real name is Mhorghain, and she is part Elvish. Her mother was wife to Gair, a powerful dark mage. In an attempt to prove a boast to her about how powerful he was, and to prevent her from leaving him, he uncapped a well of black power. His wife died saving Mhorghain and partially recapping the well, but She, Gair and her children were killed in the process. That was the story told, but, of course, not completely true. Mhorghain lived, but ever after hated magic.

She possesses it, of course, from both of her powerful parents. She used it to heal Miach, and is very unhappy about having it. Soon she learns that Nicholas is himself a powerful mage. He was human, but married to one of her mother's sisters, and it was only his devotion to her that saved him from the wrath of his father-in-law and Mhorghann's grandfather, after Gair killed Mhorghain's mother. The two of them stay at Lismór for a time but find themselves attacked by monsters, and Miach dispatches them, but wonders how the monsters tracked them, since his spells should have kept them from being detected.

More attacks follow, and Miach and Morgan leave Lismór to keep from bringing any more chaos into Lismór. They then head for the lands of Torr Dorainn and Sile, Mhorgain's grandfather.

Silé is proud to meet Mhorghain, but his distaste for Miach cannot be more clear, but it is to this man who Miach will have to subject himself if he wishes to gain Morgan/Mhorgain's hand in marriage. But can Miach overcome his own reputation as a thief of magic and gain the attention of her grandfather, when Silé is preparing to give her away to anyone *but* Miach?

Studying in the library of Torr Dorainn brings the solution of the attacks on himself to light, and he discovers that the well opened by Gair was never completely resealed. It is still open, and more evil is leaking out into the world, and Miach, for all his magic, is unable to reseal the well. As he seeks for a way to accomplish the closing of the well, he and Morgan are falling in love, to the point where she only wants him, and no one else. But Miach has much to do before he can free himself to marry Mhorghain, no matter how much he... or she... wants it. Can he win Silé's approval to court Mhorghain, and even if he can, can he defeat the evil that would kill not only him, but his family and Mhorghain as well?

This is the second in the Nine Kingdoms trilogy. The first was Star of the Morning, where we first met Morgan/Mhorghain and Miach. Morgan had a lot of baggage in that first volume, and she's still carrying quite a bit of it here, but manages to dump quite a bit of it during the course of the novel. However, I didn't feel upset at Morgan as much as I did during Star of the Morning as we finally get to see why she hates Magic so much, and quite a reason it is, too!

Seeing evil magic and magic wielded by your father kill your siblings, mother and father as well must have severely traumatized Morgan, and the story bears that out in how Nicholas relates the days after she came to him. Her mother's ring was a symbol of her anguish and any time she caught a glimpse of it, she screamed and went nearly catatonic. This only increased my admiration for Morgan, as her ability to survive both her childhood and a poisoning that should have killed her.

By contrast, Miach appears too good to be true. He never seems to get angry, except on Morgan's behalf and is basically an all-around nice guy who at times seems too slick. But in the end I enjoyed the book very much, and it was nice to see Morgan realize what a romance with Miach meant to her life, and in the end, she chose him, even if it meant leaving her comfortable life where she could have gone on with the same attitudes and opinions forever.

I'd caution readers to read "Star of the Morning" first, though, as otherwise exactly what happened in the story before, and Morgan's reasons for disliking Miach aren't completely clear.

The Adventures of Tintin, reporter for "Le Petit Vingtieme" in the Land of the Soviets by Hergé

"Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" is the first collected story by Hergé about his titular reporter and his white Terrier, Snowy.

Those who are used to Hergé's later art style will find something oddly unformed and crude about the art in this story, which is more than a little recursive. Tintin sets off for Russia from Belgium, but along the way he's falsely accused, arrested and escapes from policemen and soldiers every step of the way. In each case, Snowy helps Tintin escape and continue on his journey. In the end, though, he ends up on a train back to Belgium when he thinks he is going once again to Russia, and gives up, returning to his country of origin.

The usual joks are made against Russia. Tintin discovers a group of reporters being shown a huge Russian factory as an example of how far Russia has come in manufacturing and how quickly they are building their manufacturing capabilities. But when he looks inside, he sees that the building is mostly empty, with coal being burned for the smoke that comes out of the chimmney, guarded by a sleeping peasant, and a man with a hammer and a piece of hanging metal is providing the sounds of "manufacturing".

This was an okay book, but it's awfully crude and unfinished looking compared to Hergé's later work. I actually found it bland and uninteresting, much less interesting than I thought it was going to be. For someone who is interested in how Hergé's art evolved, it's interesting, otherwise, rather recursive and uninteresting.

When Do Fish Sleep and other Imponderables of everyday life by David Feldman

This book is the Fourth book in the "Imponderables" books, books that ask questions that are not usually known to anyone, but make us wonder as we travel down the road of life. Questions such as "Why do you always seem to find *only* a single shoe on the side of the highway, and not a pair?" or "Why is Flour Bleached?" or "Why are First Place Ribbons almost always Blue?" or "Why, when you order from a mailing order company do they tell you that orders will be shipped within 6 to 8 weeks? Does it always take that long to ship the order?"

After each question, the author answers it, such as, for the last, "They only say that so you won't complain about the order's lateness. If you get something faster than they say it will take, you're pleased. But if they gave a more realistic time, and it took longer for some reason, you'd be upset. So they pad their estimate so that people are pleasantly surprised rather than upset when their order arrives." That's the basic gist of the answer, though the answer in the book also includes an explanation of how mail-order businesses work, and commentary from the owners of mail-order businesses, expanding on the basic answer.

The book is filled with questions and answers like these, explaining how and why these things work. At the end of the over 80 questions, there are three more sections for readers. One is called "Frustables", which are questions the author couldn't answer thrown open to the readers of the book to try and answer definitively or not, a Frustables Update, giving answers submitted by readers, and a Letters section where readers give their own take on Imponderables explained by the author. Rounding out the book is an index of topics and questions covered by the book.

On the whole, this book is fun to read and fun to think about. Imponderables are defined as "Questions that can't be solved with numbers, measurements or a visit to the reference section of your local library", though of course, now that the book is written, there may well be a copy of such a book in your local reference library... But this book was a hoot and answered many questions that I didn't even know I wanted to ask... until I read this book.

The answers given are informative and engaging and are as much fun to read as it is to ponder the implications of the question. Whether the question is why cartoon characters only have three fingers and a thumb (because it's easier to draw, and four-fingered hands look too large in comparison to the body) or why tennis balls are fuzzy (to grip the racket better, and the court as well), you'll have fun reading them and finding out the answers.

I recommend this book highly to those who subscribe to Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's philosophy ("Seek and find out!") and to those who enjoy knowing bizarre facts and strange truths. The language and fun nature of the book makes it equally well-suited for teens and adults (Kids probably won't like it due to the slightly elevated and dense nature of the replies, despite the many cartoons that enliven the text. If you can find a copy of this book, read it. It will make you laugh and enlighten you on so many obscure things... and you'll enjoy every minute of it!

Zatch Bell, Volume 20 by Makoto Raiku

Zatch and his fellow Mamudo are trying to discover the secret of the tower visible only to Mamudo that appeared suddenly on earth. Although they have a videotape of the tower, no one knows where it is located, and each Mamudo and holder of their book is looking desperately for information, including Dr. Riddles, former holder of a book of a Mamudo named Kedo. Kedo's book was burned by an enemy Mamudo, but Dr. Riddles is comitted to helping Zatch become a kind King of the Mamudo.

First, Zatch and Kiyo finish helping the boy, Kyle, and his Mamudo, Rein. Kyle won the battle against the enemy Mamudo, but passed out from fear afterwards. His battle, however, has finally given the little boy the backbone to stand up to his bullying keeper, Jill, laying down the law to her that if she doesn't shape up and stop being such a bitch, he's going to the police and tell them everything she did to him, as well as all the townspeople. But Kyle's speech has another effect, that of getting the rest of the servants to stand behind him and help him regain his father's estate. His mission to protect Kyle over, Rein tells Zatch to become King and disappears back to the Mamodo world.

Meanwhile, Zatch and his friends aren't the only ones interested in the tower from the Mamodo world. Evil Mamodo are determined to unlock the tower and unleash its power on not only the Mamodo, but on the human world as well. The leader of the group is a Mamodo named Riou, who has the power to cast curses on people that can kill them if they don't do his bidding. He has used this power to recruit many strong Mamodo to his cause, cursing their human holders of the books and compelling them to add their power to support Riou's plan.

Meanwhile, Zatch, Tia and Ponygon have an encounter with Sister Elle Chivas, a nun who is looking for Momon, her Mamudo. She has travelled the world looking for other Mamudo to stop their fighting, but hasn't encountered one. Meanwhile, Kiyo is encountering Momon, and not liking the other Mamudo, who is very mischevious and seemingly cannot resist playing pranks and showing off. When he decided to pick on Tia by continually looking at her underwear and lifting up her skirt, he so enrages her that everyone around her becomes extremely scared of her. The battle reveals another spell in her book, one that calls an angel-like being with a crystal and and blade. Tia's anger and feelings of violation empower the spell, turning the angelic being more and more demonic, and it sears Momon badly before disappearing. Momon, who was trying to run away, passes out, and Tia, leeched of her anger by the spell, returns to normal.

Kiyo theorizes that Momon can tell the locations of other Mamudo and always runs away from them, which is why sister Elle never encountered any on her trip. He also theorizes that Momon can also tell where structures from the Mamudo world are, and Momon's petrified reaction proves him correct. Using Momon's reactions, they soon settle on where in the South Pacific the tower is, but Dr. Riddles reaches them with the word that it has appeared in New Zealand. Going with Kiyo, Megumi, Kafk Sunbeam and Parco Folgore are sister Elle and Dr. Riddles, who gives them another disturbing bit of news: Li-en and Wonrei have seemingly joined with the villainous Mamodo trying to open the tower. Before he leaves, Kiyo's friend Suzi struggles with telling Kiyo she likes him, and gives him a lucky charm to bring him back safely. Kiyo promises to be safe.

Before they leave, a spectre appears, telling Kiyo and Zatch that the Tower has a name: Faudo. And it confirms that Li-en and Wonrei have joined the Mamudo named Kedo, but they only did so to save Li-en's life. He tells them they have four days to prevent Faudo's release, but disappears before Kiyo can ask him any questions. Kanchomé, Folgore's Mamodo, has been extremely scared of the tower since he first saw it, and now he finally reveals why: it looks, to him, like a giant Mamodo chained and caged. The others realize he is right and are frightened of the damage such a huge Mamodo could wreak on the human world. They determine to stop it before it can be released.

Travelling to the area where the tower is in a private plane, they are forced to parachute from the plane when a Mamudo fires at the plane's wing and disables it. They land near the tower and ascend it, only to encounter a Mamudo named Kerith, and his book-holder, Bari. Folgore steps forward to fight him, only to nearly get killed by the other Mamudo's attacks. Folgore tells Kachomé to protect everyone, but the little Mamodo is afraid and hides. He is afraid that Folgore is going to die, just like when Kedo went back to the Mamodo world. And on that note, the book ends, setting us up for the next volume.

This was an interesting story, but not one I was dying to read. It is set up well, and seeing Momon be such a jerk reminded me that not all Mamodo are good or evil. They can be just like humans in their jerkiness. Momon doesn't want to fight, he just wants to run away... which begs the question of how he and Sister Elle have so many spells if neither of them have fought... something I found disappointing about the supposed logic of this.

Yes, it may be wrong to want some kind of logic from a manga, but a story should have some sort of internal consistency if it doesn't want to jolt the reader out of the suspension of disbelief in reading such a fantastic scenario to begin with. The rest of the story is back to the usual sorts of stuff, but the other thing that made me annoyed with the story is that one of the villains is black, and drawn as the worst sort of caricatured racial stereotype imaginable, which doesn't sit well with me. These two combined to give me some serious hesitations while reading this volume. It's not really horrible, but the logical inconsistency of Momon having so many spells available in his book, and the appearance (again) of the racial stereotype black woman kicked me far out of the story twice and makes me hesitant to suggest this volume to readers.

The Cat: A Novel of the Sons of Destiny by Jean Johnston

Amara of the Shifterai has been attempting to keep her twin sister safe almost from the time they were born. While she was born with the Natural Shapeshifting Abilities shared by all Shifterai, her sister was born with none of that. Instead, the Gods gifted her with a different power. And because of that power, Mages from all over their home continent have tried to steal her away, endangering and even killing members of their clan to get their hands on Arora.

To keep her sister safe, Amara left home and clan behind so that her clan would no longer be troubled by the attacks of treacherous mages. But their attempt to escape by ship, a ship whose mage was weak, so that he would not think to try and steal Arora away, has led to a possibly fatal drawback: the ship ran into a vicious storm, one the mage aboard was too weak to handle, and the ship broke up and sank in the teeth of the storm.

Amara managed to get her sister onto a single piece of the floating ship, and to bring aboard a cask full of water so that both of them could have clean, fresh water to drink. But all else is gone in the wreck, and Amara, shapechanged into a form more suited for a watery environment, has been towing her sister, hoping for the sight of land. So when she finds am island, she pulls her sister there and brings their bit of driftwood up above the tideline before going in search of fresh water and something to eat that *isn't* raw fish.

But this is no deserted island she's stumbled on. Instead, it is the home of eight brothers exiled from their home because of an ancient prophecy. Each of them is destined to meet a bride, and marry her. And they are not just brothers, but four sets of twins. Half of the brothers have already met and married their brides, but now it is the fifth brother, Trevan's turn.

Trevan has been trying to construct an artificial woman for his seventh brother, Koranen. Koranen has never been able to be with a woman because of his unrestrained powers over fire, and so he has looked to Trevanen, the most powerful magician of his brothers, to construct an illusionary woman who he cannot hurt, to ease his passion. But Trevanen hasn't gotten it right yet. Oh, the woman looks right, sounds right and feels appropriately soft, but the responses aren't right. Trevanen approaches his married brothers and their wives for help in getting the responses right, but none of his brothers will allow their wives reactions to be recorded.

The family is engaged in another task, in turning their isle of exile into a separate Kingdom, with its own laws, patron God or Goddess and thriving population. To do that, though, they will need settlers, and buildings ready and waiting for them. The family, which is pretty much all mages, have turned their efforts to this end, and when Trevanen discovers Amara, he not only wants to woo and wed her, but to get her help in this building exercise.

Amara, for her part, is extremely suspicious of Trevanen and his family, not only because they are strangers, but because they are mages. As he seeks to woo her, and she tries to protect her sister (who, in her turn, will become wife to Trevanen's twin, Rydan... eventually), and the rest of the inhabitants of the Island of Nightfall seek to deal with all the problems of setting up their own kingdom. But can Amara, a Princess of the Shifterai, deal with Kelly, Queen of Nightfall, when her own dreams of ruling were brutally torn away from her by having to protect and shelter her sister Arora? And can the two strong women ever like each other or agree when both of them have strong and decided ideas about how to run a community?

It took me a chapter or two to really get into this story, but after that, I was hooked. While Amara comes off a bit strongwilled and arrogant when it comes to protecting her sister, we find out that she has good reason to be. She's not an easy woman to like, though, as her jealousy and anger over having to protect her sister flares up time and time again, as does her resistance to being wooed in any way other than the one she would have expected at home. And yet, in all her clashes with Kelly, the ones that occur come because they are very much alike, rather than too different.

At times, I felt sorry that Trevanen had to put up with Amara. She was clannish in the worst sorts of ways, and protective to the point of being her sister's jailer. Her uncertainty and unwillingness to trust Trev and his siblings led to her being snappish and at times outright rude to them, and to others. And her excessive pride led to her running away everytime she made a mistake or got embarassed. Once she finally calms down a little, she gets a lot better and won back my sympathy. The best thing she did to win it back was being aware that she had acted like a bitch much of the time, and ask for his forgiveness, as well as trying to find a way to live beyond what her people accepted during the process of wooing.

The sex was hot, and I enjoyed reading it an awful lot. I may not read the first books in the series, but I will look out for sequels, mainly because there was enough backstory given that I feel I know what happened in the other, earlier, books in the series. I'd recommend it to others with some significant cautions, realizing that the heroine is not for everyone and she might piss a lot of readers off or lose their sympathy and never regain it. Amara is a difficult woman, and not one some readers will enjoy reading about.

The Final Prophecy: Nightkeepers by Jessica Andersen

Striking Jaguar, better known as Strike, is the last king of his people. His father, Scarred Jaguar, led a ritual twenty four years ago that cut off his people's access to the Barrier. and also from their magic. The ritual was succesful, but most of the people, and the children died under the demons known as boluntiku.Now, Strike and his winikin, both servants and mentors, Red-Boar and Jox, and Red-Boar's half blood son Rabbit, are the only ones left of the Nightkeepers, a secret society from the Mayan people meant to stave off the Apocalypse that will come in 2012,

Though they live in 2008, Strike is not the last of his people. After the failure of his father's desperate plan, the winikin took the children and disappeared. But the time will be coming to call his people back and take up the fight once more against the forces that will lead to the death of not only the earth, but the entire universe.

Leah Daniels is a Detective with the Miami Police Force. But despite her dedication to the job, she was unable to prevent the person she loved most, her brother, from joining the Survivor2012 cult and being killed by its leader, Zipacna. Now, she seeks to bring down Zipacna and the cult. But an ambush when meeting a snitch named Itchy leads to her partner's death and her kidnapping and imprisonment by Zipacna... in the sewers under Mexico City.

Even with the powers Zipacna is capable of wielding, Leah manages to get free and fight him. She is about to die before Strike teleports himself into the ritual chamber and take down Zipacna long enough for them to get away... and become lovers. After they have made love, she suddenly returns to herself and thinks Strike, with his many Mayan marks, is a member of the cult. She is determined to get away from him, but he uses magic to put her to sleep until they are safe and in a safe house. Then, he lets her wake, but another attempt to escape makes him put her back to sleep again. He calls Jox and Red-Boar, who leave the gardening store they run to come help him, leaving Rabbit in charge, over his objections.

Red-Boar wipes Leah's memory and returns her to Miami, but Rabbit, angry over being left behind, throws a party and comes into his powers as a Pyrokeine. Inadvertantly triggering his powers, he burns down the store with them. Meanwhile, Leah awakes in the hospital, not remembering anything after her partner died. She is soon released, her wounds from Mexico City having healed with amazing swiftness, and is back on the hunt for the 2012 cult.

Strike has been told about the survival of a mere 13 children from the massacre 24 years ago. Now that it is certain that the prophecy about the end times is coming true, it is time to gather them back and set them to fighting the makol who seek to bring about the end of the world. The other children are widely scattered, watched over by winikin of their own, and all of them have led very different lives, from a surfer dude to a martial arts teacher to a computer game programmer. But now it is time for them to join together at a training compound located near Chaco Canyon. Not all of them are willing, and two of them, female twins, are dead. Nevertheless, the rest come together to fight the forces of the makol and Zipacna, who has discovered how to turn other evil-hearted humans into makol like himself.

Leah, meanwhile, attends a party given by the 2012 cult and meets a programmer who is also against the cult. But she is once again ambushed, only to break free once more and recover a strange package that, to her, glows with red light. Running into Strike once more, he puts down Itchy, who has been turned makol and is surprisingly hard to kill, unless you cut off his head and cut out his heart, which Strike does. Leah doesn't recognize Strike, but he hasn't been able to stop thinking about her, as he has been dreaming about her for most of his life. She also seems to have some kind of Nightkeeper-related power, but despite having made love to her on the summer solstice, which should have brought out her power, her powers seem to be growing weaker. But he still can't stop wanting her, thinking about her. And the spirit of his father told him to save her, which was how he saved her from Itchymakol.

Restored to her memories by Red-Boar at Strike's command, Leah gives Strike the package she found, which is a codex containing a spell. Summoning up a servant of the Mayan Gods by a spell, Strike asks about her and learns she is to be a Godkeeper, a conduit to the power of the Gods. Her God is Kukulkan, and she was infused with the power of his light half many years ago, when she wandered into a ruin with her younger brother and found a door that should not have been there. Her brother was infused with the power of the God's dark half. But now that her brother is dead, Kukulkan is unable to manifest, stuck on the Sky-Road between earth and the dwelling place of the Gods. The only way to free him and save the Sky Road is to let Leah die, which will free Kukulkan and allow him to return to his fellow gods.

Strike doesn't want Leah to die. He has fallen in love with her and wants her to marry him. But how can he choose between his love and his duty to the Nightkeepers and the Earth? Perhaps the spell in the Mayan Grimoire she found can provide a way out! Strike sends the piece of bark to his sister, Anna, an anthropology professor and translator of Mayan writing. But as Anna struggles with the power of the artifact and her own grad-student, partly transformed into a makol by the power of the spell contained within, Strike will have to learn to step up and lead his people as a real King, and if he wants to save Leah without dooming the earth, he and his untried warriors will have to go up against the Survivor2012 cult and their makol leader, Zipacna, himself a demon who can only be taken out by a God.

This book is deeply immersive and while I was reading it, made me really believe that such things could be true and be happening. Lots of Mayan language and words are used in the book, but I don't know how accurate they are. They do sound authentic, of course, or look, considering this is a book.

The story itself is immersive, right from the first page. The story of Strike, the story of Leah, and the stories of the other Nightkeepers meld seamlessly, the many separate threads combining into a thick and beautiful braid that promises to continue into other books in the series. The book is also incredibly well-written and I would find myself lost in the pages. Even if I only had a short time to read, I could almost guarantee I'd find myself reading another page or three because I couldn't tear myself away from the story.

Although I felt only meh about the sex scenes, the rest of the book more than made up for it. The romance is not bad, and I did get the feeling that the characters truly felt affection and love for each other, and their despair at the thought of Leah dying felt genuine and was genuinely moving. Both characters also come across as real and well-rounded, with their own reasons for doing things. I will definitely be reading more in this series. It's just too good not to.

The Night Bird by Catharine Asaro

Allegra is a mage and a citizen of Aronsdale. Actually, she isn't a mage yet, but she can do certain kinds of spells. Her magics run the spectrum from Red to Yellow, and the most magic she has ever done is to make herself feel better with a Yellow Spell or sing people to sleep with Red Magic. She is currently on her way to Crofts Vale, to enter the school of magic there and learn to really control her powers. But on her way, she is kidnapped by men of the T'Ambera tribe of Jazid, who steal her away to become a pleasure slave and sell her at market.

But unlike her captors want her to be, Allegra isn't going to just lie down and take being enslaved meekly. She tries to escape at every juncture, and can't stop herself from mouthing off to her captors in every way. But she escapes being harmed because they don't want her damaged before they sell her. But when they bring her before the two men who are competing to buy her, Prince Regent Markus Onyx and his most accomplished general, Dusk Yargazon, she mouths back to them and even throws a drink in Markus's face when he demands she serve them. Both men seem enraged, and have her taken out of the tent, and she is sure she will be killed. But better that than be a slave, right?

She is entirely surprised to find that her attitude and actions have driven her price up, and she is sold to Markus for what amounts to an insane amount of money. The T'Ambera men give her a drink which she finds out is poison... but not in a high enough dose to kill her. Instead, it will just make her skin and senses extremely sensitive, and since she is still a virgin, ease her way into her first time with a man.

She expects to be beaten by Markus when they enter his camp, just like the soldier caught stealing a dagger to send to his son, but instead, he only pretends to hit her, except for two blows with a belt on her buttocks. She is startled at this unusual display of kindness, and when Markus confesses to her that he is unable to sleep, and hasn't slept in days, she finds a round shape and sings him to sleep. She knows she should flee, but is so shaky she is unable to, so she wraps herself up in a soft rug and goes to sleep herself. She wakes up from a dream of being made love to by her best friend when she was growing up, but it is Markus making love to her.

She continues to talk back to him and tell him when he is acting like a pig, but she is also doing spells much more powerful than she ever thought possible. Markus is a Prince Regent for a young Boy named Ozi, who is heir to the throne of Jazid. But the country was conquered by Cobalt, Emperor of the Misted Cliffs. Ozi is Emperor in exile, and there is a price on the head of both Markus and Dusk Yazagon, the general who was also bidding on Allegra. And Allegra has seen the General's thoughts towards her, and they frighten her. While in Markus she finds a tender, gentle interior beneath a hard mask, with Dusk Yagazon, he wants to hurt her and make her submit to him.

When Markus takes her to meet Ozi, she sees her chance. After their marriage, Markus commands her to sing for the others, and she uses enough power in the spell to put everyone in the tent to sleep, including herself for a short while. When she awakes, she steals Ozi away and leaves, headed for Aronsdale. But Dusk has only been shamming, and he attacks her, trying to beat her and choke her. She fights back and knocks him out, then ties him up with the same chains he would have used on her, and makes her escape.

Ozi, when he awakes, is remarkably sanguine about the whole thing, and accompanies her to Aronsdale, where she returns to the Mage school at Crofts and then must find some way to confess what she has done and what happened to her. But can she find the strength before both Markus and Emperor Cobalt show up and precipitate a war? And when Dusk declares war on the Empire of Taka Mal, can she find a solution to bring peace before all the settled lands end up embroiled in a war that no one can win?

I liked this book, aside from her mouthiness, the heroine acted in a manner which was realistic and consistent throughout the book. Though she couldn't stop talking back to the hero, in her defense, she was being kidnapped and imprisoned in a country whose customs and laws were almost completely opposite her own. And which offended her deeply in the bargain. Being relegated to the status of a thing would not sit well on any woman raised in freedom.

Markus comes off as more of a cipher. Raised in a country where most women are considered closer to objects than people, and in which they are disenfranchised from any sort of autonomy over their own persons, Markus is less dogmatic than most of the Jazidian men, presumably because his own mother was put away for failing to have any other children besides himself, and he made himself promise that he would never do the same to any woman he married I'm not sure that I entirely accept this "single incident" as having such a profound influence on his character, but at the same time, it's not that much of a stretch.

The story bogs down a bit after Markus comes after Allegra in Aronsdale, because a lot of the discussion becomes about politics, and that's not all that interesting in a Romance novel. This does provide a chance for Asaro to bring back in characters from previous stories, including Cobalt, Emperor of the Misted Cliffs, who is a pretty scary character to most of the characters, being as he has conquered or subsumed by marriage most of the lands on the Lost Continent. But even though Allegra percieves him to be frightening, she stands up to him.

I've enjoyed this series a lot, and this book is a worthy successor, with intrigue, danger and many hot love scenes. It almost enough to make you forget that you are reading a romance novel.

The Collegium Chronicles- Volume 1: Foundation by Mercedes Lackey

Mags is a much-abused boy living in a mining camp, along with many other children. The mine is run by a man named Pieter, and he stints the children who work for him to give to himself and his own kin. Mags has been working for Pieter as long as he can remember, and Pieter's kin tell him he has bad blood, and that no one wanted him, which is how he ended up working the mines.

It's getting later in the year, and the days are growing colder. With only rags to clothe himself in, Mags knows he will have to weave himself foot covers out of hay or straw to protect his feet. But he is just a little better at working his part of the mine, finding good yellow sparklies for the Pieters, and when the time comes to work the sluices above, finding many, many bits of gems. When he first was set to working the sluices, the overseer said he had eyes like a magpie. Eventually, this got shortened to "Mags", and that is the only name he ever got.

One day, Mags overhears the guards talking about some kind of frightening thing coming to the mine. A fellow worker tried to bribe him to slip the older kid some of his "Sparklies" before he leaves, but Mags won't do it. Even though he's had good luck in the mines and earned himself two slices of bread instead of one with dinner, he knows it is death to either attack a Pieters or to steal from him. But when he realizes that a younger boy has found nothing and so must eat his soup without bread, he slips the boy a half-slice of his bread. The younger boy is grateful, looks at him with admiration, and gobbles up the bread.

Soon after, all the children are pulled from the mine by order of Cole Pieters, and a man comes to look them over. Pieters claims to have been starving his own children to feed those who work in the mine, but one look at the skinny, too-small kids shows that to be a lie. The man takes Mags from the mine and introduces him to his Companion, Dallen. Mags has been chosen to be a Herald of Valdemar, and his choosing has shown the King and Queen what sort of abuses are going on in their own Kingdom.

The man, Herald Jakyr, took Mags to the closest guardhouse, and through the nex few weeks fed him and taught him, along with Dallen, so that he would have some chance of learning all the things he had missed while he was mining. He already knows how to read, and Dallen feeds information into his mind when he asks questions, as well as imposing a calm on his mind so that he can be taught instead of panicking or being afraid of everything new. He is also asked to make a record of what went on at the mine, both in winter and summer, and what happened to those children who disappeared. Mags is afraid of going against his owner, Cole Pieters, but in the end, realizes that if he tells his story, he can prevent these sorts of things from happening to other young children, and so he does. But he's suspicious of the claims that the Heralds try to level the playing field for everyone, thinking that some having more opportunities than others is simply the way the world is. It's what he learned, down in the mines.

When he's learned enough, from Jackyr and Dallen, he's brought on to Haven, the Capital of Valdemar. The Heralds have finally grown large enough and numerous enough for the old system of a Herald training an apprentice, to grow unwieldy, and so they must build a college to train their new members. But with the building, the Bards, Healers and servants in the Castle also need their own buildings. So to save time and effort, the King and Queen decide to build all three together and make one Collegium with a number of buildings.

But it isn't finished yet, which means most of the classes are taking place in the Bardic College. With so many students, the already-standing buildings are full almost to the point of overflowing, so Mags is allowed to bunk in the stable, in one of the small storerooms. And so he begins attending classes.

But not everyone is happy with the new way of doing things. Some Heralds are upset that they can no longer train apprentices themselves, and that they no longer know every Herald personally. All of this spills over on Mags one night when a Herald spots him going to his room in the stables, and accuses him of using his room as a place for drinking and wenching. Mags protests his innocence, but the other Herald doesn't believe him. Using his Mindspeaking Gift, he calls for help, and another Herald rescues him from the first. Afterwards, he tells Mags why the other Herald was so angry. But this doesn't make Mags upset, it actually makes him feel more secure, knowing that not every Herald agrees with the others. This makes them feel more human to him and less inhuman, thinking that every Herald's thoughts were in lockstep with the others. He is part of a human organization, and that reassures him.

But despite the amount of time spent at the Collegium, he doesn't have any friends. All that is changed when he meets Lena, a young bard crying over the death of her pet rabbit. Mags helps her bury her friend, and comforts her, and when she is disconsolate at the death of her friend, promises to be her friend. She gladly takes him up on that, and later introduces him to another friend of hers, Bear, a Healer-Trainee. The three of them study together, and Lena has a knack for getting Mags to understand things, so she becomes his mentor as well.

When Lena and Bear go home for the Winter Holidays, though, Mags neither goes with them or leaves Haven. He has nowhere to go to, so he stays in his room and studies and trains. The return of Jackyr, however, provides Mags with some money, and an order to explore the city. Mags does so and meets a man named Soren looking at Topaz jewelry. When the seller says no finer gems can be found, Mags snorts knowingly, and Soren asks him to explain. Mags shows him the flaws in the stone, and Soren uses this knowledge to bargain for a lower price with the seller. In thanks, he takes Mags to lunch, and prods Mags to share the story of his life. Mags does, and the man is saddened, but says he wishes Mags to come to his Winter Solstice Party he gives at his house, or just to drop by, and writes directions on a piece of paper for Mags.

Herald Caellen tells him that Soren is the Guildmaster of the Builders guild and that Mags should make the most of the invitation. Mags soon does, and through his association with Soren, is given a special job- to become a Herald spy, looking out for discontent in the city and being taught how to blend in anywhere by Herald Nikolas.

After the Holidays, Lena and Bear return, but things didn't go well with their families. Bear is being pressed to be married to a girl he has no feelings for, and he is desperate to escape the match. But when one of the foreign diplomats's servants shows all the signs of hysteria and is apparently being haunted by a Ghost, Mags, Lena and Bear are drawn into the mystery. There are no ghosts known to be in the castle, so what could possibly be wrong with the man? And why is their poltergeist-like activity happening around him?

And later, when a winter blizzard blankets the capital in many feet of snow, Mags must find the people lost in the storm around the palace, and then find Bear, who has been missing since the day of the storm. But can he succeed before his friend is frozen by the cruel winter temperatures? Or dies at the hand of something worse?

Mercedes Lackey is someone I have been reading since her first book, Arrows of the Queen. I am completely amazed by how she can suck you completely into a book after reading only a few pages of the story. Within minutes, I was completely invested in Mags' narrative, although I did have to wonder how this would tie in with the Heralds of Valdemar, the story of a small boy in a mine that I wasn't even sure of where it was located, since Mags doesn't know where he is, either.

Reading his story, feeling his triumphs and his helping of the other children made me both sad and happy. Happy that he would help people even in his bad situation, and sad at the conditions he had to undergo. But with the arrival of Jackyr and Dallen, the story's direction suddenly became clear.

If the book has one flaw, I felt it was in how much the story echoed Talis's story. But Talia is a girl and apparently makes friends much more easily than Mags. Also, Talia was Queen's Own, while Mags will never be anything more than a simple Herald. Well, a spying one, anyhow. But both characters are somehow very self-contained and slow to open up to people. If anything, Mags is solemn and almost dour as well. Being raised in a mine, he has never learned how to have fun, or even what having fun feels like.

But the friends Mags makes go a long way towards humanizing him, and with the relatives and friends of Nikolas and Soren, he begins to find the happy child inside himself, and to learn to laugh and play. But he already has instilled in him from the time at the mine the ethics of hard work and dedication to a task. Seeing him blossom and bloom is a most enjoyable part of the book, and seeing him work to save people, and his friends is another enjoyable part.

The book leaves us with a mystery involving Mags's parentage and ancestry, and promises to be fleshed out in the second book, which I am now desperately wanting to read. This is a book that sucks you in practically from the first line, wraps you up in the story, and only spits you out again at the last line on the last page. It may not be a non-stop thrill ride, but it's pretty exhilarating, and leaves you with good things to remember. Read it if you're a fan of fantasy.

The Tale of Briar Bank by Susan Wittig Albert

Beatrix Potter is a well-known and loved children's author and illustrator. With the money from her books, she has purchased a farm in Lake Country and uses it as an escape from her demanding mother and father. Her mother, thinking Beatrix is being an undutiful daughter, has demanded her daughter stay with her until after the holidays. But Beatrix, who usually caves to her mother's demands, doesn't cave this time, and she leaves for her property, Hill Top farm, along with two guinea pigs as a present for a girl Beatrix knows named Caroline Longford, named Nutmeg and Thackeray.

Nutmeg cannot wait to meet Caroline, but Thackeray hates Nutmeg and the journey out of the city. He'd much rather be reading edifying works and not listening to the female chatter from Nutmeg. He's so peeved that he bites several people who try to stroke him, not likng that sort of thing.

When Beatrice gets to Hill Top Farm, though, she finds that most of the Lake Country is buried under a thick fall of snow, with more on the way. This means she won't be able to return to her parents' house in time for the party she'd been helping her mother plan, but she doesn't feel upset about this, rather, she is overjoyed by the idea of having to stay on her farm a few extra days.

The latest news from around the town is that Lady Longford;s barn mysteriously burned to the ground after being struck by something large and flaming, and Mr. Wickstead, a noted antiquarian, has died in the forest. The top part of a tree fell on him. There were animal marks on the tree, but far too large to be any sort of animal native to the area. He is survived by a sister who had recently found him, from Manchester. Apparently, their parents had died, and as orphans, the family was split up. Now, so soon after finding him, they are cruelly separated once more by death. Beatrix doesn't attend the inquest, where Wickstead's death is attributed to misadventure and natural causes. i.e. struck by a tree. But she is invited to a memorial supper for the man, along with most of the town.

It seems that Wickstead had recently found in the woods an ancient treasure from the early days of Britain, and the amount of treasure was greatly exaggerated by the wagging tongues of the town gossips. After his death, the treasure went missing, and no one is sure exactly what happened to it.

Meanwhile, in the woods, Bosworth Badger, owner of a Badger Hole and Hostelry called the Brockery, is visited by Bailey,another badger from another hole. Actually, he was rescued by Bosworth's nephew, Thorn, who fished him out of a frozen lake, and Bailey has quite a tale to tell of his burnt paw, and how he ended up in the lake. It seems that he discovered a dragon living in his den. The dragon, named Thorvaald, was guarding the treasure that Wickstead found, guarding it for a much larger female dragon named Yllva. Bailey had somehow awakened the dragon, and become fast friends with it. But when they heard about the discovered treasure, Thorvaald found that it was the treasure *he* had been guarding which had been stolen.

Desperate to find it, he kept watch on the hole where it had been placed, and found Wickstead putting it back in the holw, But in his interest to see what was going on, he perched in the tree, which broke, fell and killed Mr. Wickstead. Yllva had also heard the tales and went in search of the treasure, and thought the package on Bailey's back, which contained his snowshoes, was the treasure and he was stealing it. She attacked him, burning his paw and forcing him to dive into the lake, but then Thorvaald counter-attacked. He set Yllva on fire, but she crashed into the Longford's barn and did not escape the flames.

Now Thorvaald is missing, and the county has seen enough weird and amazing things to be extremely confused.

It's also confusing that Mr. Wickstead didn't know about any siblings, but his sister showed up shortly after he found the treasure. And when Beatrix discovers that the pictures that Mr. Wickstead's sister had been showing him are of her own family home, she smells a rat. But can the "sister" explain her presence in the home of a man she is not actually related to?

This book was a short read, but amusing. The way the author and the story treats animals as real people puts me in mind of Rita Mae Brown and her "Mrs. Murphy" books. But the exception here is that Mrs. Murphy tends to think as a human would. The animals here are less concerned with humans, and only to the point that they can kill or endanger the animals. Like the Mrs. Murphy books, though, the animals tend to be friendly with each other, even the dogs and cats. And, in this case, the animals end up knowing more about the solution of how Mr. Wickstead died than the humans do.

All in all, a fun tale, and while the story has Beatrix Potter at its center and involves a historical period of time, the book reads very much like a cozy, even amongst the animals. This series is the most fun and amusing read I have ever had in the historical mystery genre, and I will definitely recommend it to others.

Duainfey by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Rebecca Beauvelley is a ruined woman. One misjudgement years before left her with a ruined arm and a cloud of scandal about her. No longer able to make any kind of good marriage, she has resigned herself to marriage to Sir Jennet Hale, a man old enough to be her father, and a second son in the bargain. Indeed, he father has told her that if she will not marry Sir Jennet, she is to be thrown out of his house and into a Wandering Village, where she will be forced to make her own way in life. And while Rebecca has the ability to heal with plants, many people no longer trust such things and would rather healing be done with machines that answer only to the hand of man.

Such machines were useless to her in the matter of her arm, and so it has become weak, useless and withered. Her younger sister, Caroline, is often unkind to Rebecca, thinking of the great marriage *she* will make, but when Rebecca meets Altimere, an Elder Fey who is in human lands on business, he seems quite taken with her. This both delights and flusters her, because she knows that she is something to be pitied to most other men that she knows. But Altimere doesn't seem to care about her withered arm, and his regard for her is most warm. But when Rebecca dances an entire set with Altimere at a ball that her Fianceé is attending, Jennet Hale becomes enraged and grips her withered arm hard enough to leave bruises.

Altimere, though, approaches Rebecca with a cup, and allows her to see two visions. One is of herself after marriage to Jennet, cold and mostly abandoned in his far northern home. The other is of herself wearing rich and costly garb and many jewels: happy, hale and well-loved. In that moment, all the misgivings she's had about marrying Sir Jennet Hale crystalize, and she agrees to leave for the Fey Lands with Altimere, giving her power into his hands to keep safe for her.

But her leaving is not without scandal, and her sister Caroline begs Atimere to take *her*, not Rebecca. But Altimere enchants the younger girl to go back to her room and forget what she has seen, and hides himself and Rebecca in plain sight until they can make the journey to the border between the human world and that of the fey. There, he asks if he can keep her name safe for her as they cross the border, as it is perilous, and she turns him down, feeling uneasy about the idea.

Once across the border, the two of them shelter in Altimere's estate, and he eventually becomes Rebecca's lover. But soon, she grows wary. She often finds herself doing things for Altimere that she had sworn to herself she would not, and when she makes love with Altimere's gardener at Altimere's behest, she ends up killing the other Fey. Altimere says that the fey was too weak, but does not deny why he died.

Altimere presents Rebecca with a necklace which she herself must put on. It costs her a great deal of pain to do so, but she does manage it, for which he is delighted with her. But soon after, Altimere has her seduce another Fey. But this woman is too strong and declines the offer, after which he makes Rebecca stab her. Rebecca does not want to, but she cannot resist, and she realizes that Altimere has entrapped her in a prison worse than any in the mortal world, simply by her giving him her power to keep. But in keeping her own name, she also retains her memories of the things he has her do, and she cannot escape him.

He brings Rebecca to court, where he uses her to seduce and murder several of the Faerie Queen's advisors. Rebecca tries twice to remove the necklace, knowing somehow that she will never be able to be free of Altimere and his will if she wears it, but is unsuccessful. Then Altimere leaves on a journey of his own, and Rebecca is raped by three Fey males at once, and due to her essential powerlessness, cannot escape them. However, they pay for their attack by slowly sickening and dying, their power stolen from them by Altimere's enchantments on her.

At her lowest ebb, Rebecca is ready to take three leaves of a plant called Duainfey, given to her by her mentor in herb-craft, which causes both clearing of the mind, and, in larger doses, death. As she is settled on this course of action, she is visited by another Fey, a female named Sian, who tells her that, even should she kill herself, Altimere might be able to bring her back should she not rid herself of the necklace before she died. And if she tries to remove it a third time and not be able to, she will never be able to remove it. This gives Rebecca pause, but Sian, and the sentient elitch trees, help her gain the strength and strength of will to remove the necklace.

But the Queen, cousin of Sian, and another cousin of Sian, Meri, a male Fey imprisoned and tortured cruelly by humans, may be more important to Rebecca's coming life among the fey than she knows. For now, exhausted, she merely sleeps.

I found this book hard to put down once I had started reading it. Rebecca never bemoans her fate or wails about the future she is heading for. She has come to accept it, and a life that is more like death: no caring, no wanting, no strong emotions. Nothing but being a dutiful daughter. And that, she sees in Lord Altimere's cup, will lead to a life worse than death for her.

Of course, Altimere baits her with a vision of a future with him, loved, cared for and full of plenty. Little does she realize then the cost of such a future with him. But even when she realizes the cost of the choice she made, she doesn't weep, wail and whine. She attempts to get out of it. But with a man who can control not only her actions, but her thoughts as well, this is much, much harder than it looks. And when she is at her lowest ebb, she is brutally attacked and sinks even lower. But once again, it is not with weeping or complaining. She simply does what she thinks will free her from the mess she has made.

Now that I have finished the book, I want to read more. I enjoyed the story even when I felt sad and horrified on Rebecca's behalf. The story was well and sensitively written, and were I in her place, I would probably have made the same choices she did. And felt worse about the outcome.

Rebecca's story is overlain with the story of Meri, who is a Fey who had been brutalized by humans. Although his assault is not spelled out, but rather implied, it is equally shocking, equally horrifying. Yet, although the stories of Meri and Rebecca don't converge in this volume, I think that each will in the next volume, and I hope for a peaceful resolution to the stories of both.

I recommend this book with the caveat that reading the brutalization of both Meri and Rebecca is hard to read, story-wise. I'm not sure which was worse for me, for both in their own way were equally bad, just different. But if you aren't afraid to read such things, you will find this book a wonderful, engaging read that will suck in all your attention and time until it is finished, and leave you longing for more. I've never read the authors in question before, but I will definitely be reading more of them now.

Romancing the Dead by Tate Hallaway

Garnet Lacey, a witch formerly hunted by both the F.B.I. and the Vatican, is finally feeling a little better about her situation. The Vatican Witchhunters believe she is dead, and the blame for the murder of her former covenmates has fallen on Riley, her vampire ex-boyfriend. Current vampire boyfriend Sebastian has proposed to her and she's accepted his diamond ring. Oh, and Lilith, the goddess living in her belly, has seemed to settle down and is being marginally less bitchy. Life is good.

But Garnet's efforts to start another coven bring her nothing but trouble, saddling her with some of the unlikeliest of fellow witches, to whom she must confess not only harboring a dark goddess in her belly, but the blood-sucking tendencies of her boyfriend. But now she's seeing wolves- or dogs resembling wolves, everywhere, and one of the people who showed up to her "coven open house" is an Ojibway who seems to want nothing more than the goddess in her belly.

And when Sebastian goes missing, she's going to have to steel herself and look into the persons and habits of the female ghouls her lover feeds from... all of whom seem to hate her for marrying Sebastian and taking him away from them, as he is getting rid of all of them before he marries her. And despite Sebastian's claims that none of the Ghoul girls know magic, Garnet is definitely under magical attack. And now she must team up with Sebastian's ever-adolescent son, Mátyás, to find her missing fianceé from whoever has stolen him away... and in the process discover why. And she'll be doing it without Lilith... as Micah has managed to do what she thought impossible and steal Lilith away.

But should Garnet be happy that Lilith is gone? Or scared? And when the image of another Goddess, Hel, enters the picture, Garnet is going to have need of Lilith, and fast! But how can she go up against a God, Coyote, to get her back?

This was a book I really enjoyed, being both an easy and fast read, and a strong heroine who is pretty kick-ass when the chops come down to it. In this book, she is bereft of fianceé, goddess and confidence, but comes back to regain all three and move against those who have attacked her. She even manages to make her peace with and work with Mátyás, Sebastian's forever-stuck-at-17 year old son, who has worked with the Vatican in the past, but also worked to protect Garnet from discovery.

More secrets are revealed in this book, primarily that Mátyás is a dream wanderer who never has dreams of his own, but is forced to wander through those of others. And that others have the same problem that Garnet has, with a God or Goddess stuck in their body. Unlike Garnet, though, some are doing this willingly (Micah) and some have forced the Goddess to inhabit them and prevent her from leaving (the one with Hel in her body). Unlike those, Garnet has Lilith staying with her because Garnet shares an uneasy truce with the Goddess, but by the end of the book, she works out a compromise that allows Lilith a more complete union with her. This also solves the problem of her upcoming marriage to Sebastian: that he, as a vampire, is ageless, and she will grow old. But to learn how, you'll have to read the book!

I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys supernatural stories and supernatural chick-lit. It's not precisely a romance. but shares similarities with one. The ongoing story will bring you back whether you enjoy the romance or not. And that's the real draw here.