The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-8-13

Posted on September 8, 2013September 8, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

And we’re back!

I know, it didn’t really look like we left, but that’s the joy of scheduling posts. Except that last Sunday’s Sunday Post almost posted full of XXX, because that’s the way I left it when we left town. I meant to fill it in, and almost forgot. WorldCon was a blast.

Yes, we’re going to London next August, no matter how scraped the pennies have to be. This was so much fun I’m still bouncing up and down with glee, in spite of having been back for almost a week.

The Con experience ended on a mournful note. When we got home Monday night, word was percolating through that the great SF Grand Master Frederik Pohl had passed away in Illinois just as the Con was ending in San Antonio. One of the marvelous things about SF is just how accessible most of the pros are. Pohl used to attend all the Chicago cons every year, so I heard him read and speak two or three times a year for several years. He’ll be missed.

Before I move on to the regular recap and schedule of upcoming events, one last, but probably not final, comment about WorldCon. Galen posted a Worldcon wrap-up on his blog, Meta Interchange. I pretty much second everything he said, but it would have taken me five times as long to say it. 😉

Current Giveaway:

Suzanne Johnson tourwide giveaway: First prize (1) iPad 2; Second prize (5) $20 Gift Cards to Winners’ online retailer of choice; both prizes open internationally ENDS September 10, 2013

Winner Announcement:

The winners of the ebook copies of The Love of My (Other) Life by Traci L. Slatton are Shelley S. and BookLady.

Blog Recap:

Promo: Surprise Brazen Release: Wicked Heat by Nicola Marsh
Labor Day 2013
B+ Review: The Mystery Woman by Amanda Quick
B+ Review: Cast in Sorrow by Michelle Sagara
B+ Review: Finding Camlann by Sean Pidgeon
A- Review: Elysian Fields by Suzanne Johnson
Guest Post by Author Suzanne Johnson on Supernatural New Orleans + Giveaway
Stacking the Shelves (57)

Coming Next Week:

The Bones of Paris by Laurie R. King (review)
Hellfire by Jean Johnson (review)
Tempt Me, Cowboy by Megan Crane (blog tour review)
Medium Rare by Meg Benjamin (blog tour review)
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh (blog tour review)

Stacking the Shelves (57)

Posted on September 7, 2013September 7, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

This isn’t all there is. There’s a box of books shipping via turtle express from San Antonio and I have absolutely no recollection what’s in it. We sincerely tried not to pick up too much, but, there were a certain number of irresistible freebies going around (not exactly free when you factor in the cost of the trip) and it’s important to support the hucksters in the dealers’ room.

I couldn’t resist buying a print copy of Jean Johnson’s Hellfire just so I could get her to sign it. I say this and I already had an ebook copy. Author signed copies are the one place where print is absolutely better. Jean was terrific on all her panels (and I think I went to at least half of them, maybe more) and the book was awesome. My review will be posted Tuesday.

Final note, the last book in the list, A Slight Trick of the Mind, is a Sherlock Holmes novel by Mitch Cullin. It has just been announced that a movie is being made from this novel with Ian McKellen as the retired Holmes. That’s right, Gandalf (and Magneto) is also Sherlock. Simply fantastic news, even if it is possibly a sign of the oncoming nerdpocalypse.

For Review:
The Cat, The Devil, and Lee Fontana by Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Pat J. Murphy
Everlasting Enchantment (Relics of Merlin #4) by Kathryne Kennedy
The King’s Grave: The Discovery of Richard III’s Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones
Legend of the Highland Dragon by Isabel Cooper
The Lotus Palace (Lotus Palace #1) by Jeannie Lin
The Perfect Match (Blue Heron #2) by Kristan Higgins
The Prince of Lies (Night’s Masque #3) by Anne Lyle
The Secret Life of Miss Anna Marsh (Marriage Game #2) by Ella Quinn
The Seduction of Lady Phoebe (Marriage Game #1) by Ella Quinn
A Study in Ashes (Baskerville Affair #3) by Emma Jane Holloway
Take Over at Midnight (Night Stalkers #4) by M.L. Buchman
Tempt Me (Underbelly Chronicles #3) by Tamara Hogan
What Not to Bare by Megan Frampton

Purchased:
Haste Ye Back (1 Night Stand) by Wendy Burke
Medium Well by Meg Benjamin
The One He Chose (1 Night Stand) by Wendy Burke
Still Fine at Forty by Dakota Madison
Wise Men Say (1 Night Stand) by Wendy Burke

Borrowed from the Library:
Perdition (Dred Chronicles #1) by Ann Aguirre
A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin

Guest Post by Author Suzanne Johnson on Supernatural New Orleans + Giveaway

Posted on September 6, 2013May 7, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | blog tours> Giveaways> Guest Posts

Today I’d like to welcome Suzanne Johnson, the author of the absolutely fabulous urban fantasy Sentinels of New Orleans series. Her latest book is Elysian Fields (review here) and if you love urban fantasy (or New Orleans stories, or terrific heroines) check out this series! (If you love vamps, get Redemption)

Supernatural New Orleans: A Few Theories
by Suzanne Johnson

Long before Anne Rice established New Orleans as a haven for world-weary vampires, my adopted hometown had been a hotbed of supernatural activity and legend.

When I began writing my Sentinels of New Orleans series, which began with the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina, it was a given that NOLA would be my setting. Even without the hurricane, however, it’s hard to go wrong setting a paranormal story here. I don’t know if there has ever been a study of the most popular setting for paranormal fiction, but I’d be shocked if New Orleans wasn’t No. 1 in the U.S., perhaps the world.

Why? I came up with four reasons the Crescent City (called this due to the crescent shape of the Mississippi River as it winds through the metro area) is such a paranormal hub. In no particular order….

1. Age. It’s no Rome or Paris or London, but by U.S. standards, New Orleans is a very old city, founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, in 1718. What’s more unusual, it has retained much of its original architecture thanks to a total miscalculation by military leaders during the Civil War. The city was the largest in the South, a major port that controlled the Mississippi River, and the economic hub of the Confederacy. But the military leaders put most of the defense around the northern perimeter and left the river itself defended only by three small forts. The Union ships sailed right on in and took control of the city early. So unlike Atlanta and other Southern cities, New Orleans was not burned to the ground. In fact, the city itself saw no fighting at all.

As a result, the French Quarter is still intact and its crumbling buildings might have been repaired a bazillion times over the centuries, but they retain the flavor of the original French colony and, later, Spanish outpost. It’s the most European of American cities, and it’s hard not to walk a deserted side street late at night and not feel the ghosts of the past around you.

2. Population. As a port city, New Orleans has always been peopled by a large array of nationalities. French and Spanish colonists were there early, as well as Italians who worked the docks and Irishmen the wharves. There was also a very large population of free people of color in New Orleans, many of whom arrived from the French colonies of the West Indies. Most prominent among them were those from what today is Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They came to New Orleans to start a new life, in one of the only Southern ports where they were legally allowed to own land and businesses, and brought with them voudou, their version of the African belief system. New Orleans and “voodoo” became linked, and its mysticism gave rise to many legends and traditions.

Today, the voodoo shops and museums are mostly tourist traps, but in the parishes outside the city, and some of the back rooms within it, it’s still practiced.

3. Violence. In the last decade, New Orleans has pretty much reigned as the per-capita murder capital of the U.S. It’s nothing new, however. In the early 1800s, when the privateer/pirate Jean Lafitte ruled his kingdom of a thousand ruffians and sailors just south of the city, New Orleans had already established a reputation for violence. My own theory is that the city’s violence has stemmed from the unholy trinity of population, weather, and poverty.

Lots of nationalities means a lot of clashing ideals and beliefs. Port cities tend to violence, as ships’ crews and dockworkers let off steam, usually fueled by plenty of alcohol. Where people die violently, spirits linger. New Orleans’ violent history has contributed to its generally being considered the most haunted city in the U.S. (And for you Sentinels fans, the ghost of Jean Lafitte himself, no stranger to violence, is believed by many to haunt the Lafitte Blacksmith Shop Bar on lower Bourbon Street.)

4. Geography. There’s a joie de vivre in South Louisiana unlike any I’ve encountered in my moves to different parts of the country, and I attribute it to the fact that there’s a fragility to living there. I mean, if you live in a bowl-shaped city below sea level, in the direct path of Gulf hurricanes, and protected by a shaky levee system, there’s a “party hard because it all might be gone tomorrow” attitude that keeps the city feeling more like a Caribbean outpost than a captain of American industry. Even before things like levee systems were invented—and before the advent of air conditioning—half the city’s population could die of mosquito-borne yellow fever on any given summer. Folk superstitions and urban legends stemming from this “here today-gone tomorrow” attitude are widespread. Add the surrounding swampland, fog on the river thick enough to drown in, the abundance of massive live oaks and Spanish moss, and the world’s largest population of alligators, and you add an extra creep factor where the paranormal thrives.

Have you been to New Orleans? What do you think most evokes the paranormal there? (I haven’t even mentioned the above-ground cemeteries!)

About Suzanne JohnsonOn Aug. 28, 2005, Suzanne Johnson loaded two dogs, a cat, a friend, and her mom into a car and fled New Orleans in the hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Four years later, she began weaving her experiences and love for her city into the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, beginning with Royal Street (2012), continuing with River Road (2012), and now with Elysian Fields (August 2013).

She grew up in rural Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’ birthplace, and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years—which means she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.

She can be found online at her website or her daily blog, Preternatura. As Susannah Sandlin, she writes the best-selling Penton Vampire Legacy paranormal romance series and the recent standalone, Storm Force.

To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website or blog or follow her on Twitter, Facebook or Goodreads.

TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY

Suzanne is giving away a grand prize of an iPad 2 and five $20 gift cards to winners’ online retailer of choice. All prizes are open internationally!

To enter, use the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Elysian Fields by Suzanne Johnson

Posted on September 6, 2013August 18, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback
Genre: Urban fantasy
Series: Sentinels of New Orleans, #3
Length: 386 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Date Released: August 13, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

The mer feud has been settled, but life in South Louisiana still has more twists and turns than the muddy Mississippi.

New Orleanians are under attack from a copycat killer mimicking the crimes of a 1918 serial murderer known as the Axeman of New Orleans. Thanks to a tip from the undead pirate Jean Lafitte, DJ Jaco knows the attacks aren’t random—an unknown necromancer has resurrected the original Axeman of New Orleans, and his ultimate target is a certain blonde wizard. Namely, DJ.

Combating an undead serial killer as troubles pile up around her isn’t easy. Jake Warin’s loup-garou nature is spiraling downward, enigmatic neighbor Quince Randolph is acting weirder than ever, the Elders are insisting on lessons in elven magic from the world’s most annoying wizard, and former partner Alex Warin just turned up on DJ’s to-do list. Not to mention big maneuvers are afoot in the halls of preternatural power.

Suddenly, moving to the Beyond as Jean Lafitte’s pirate wench could be DJ’s best option.

At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

My Review:

The term “Elysian Fields” refers to a separate section of Hades reserved for gods and heroes. It’s also a street in New Orleans. (So far, all the books in Johnson’s Sentinels of New Orleans series are named for streets in New Orleans.)

The reference to Hades is particularly appropriate in this case, because a lot of the action in this story has to do with manipulating that faction known in DJ Jaco’s universe as the “historical undead”.

There’s a necromancer in town, and he’s decided to bring the Axeman of New Orleans back from the dead to bury his axe in DJ’s skull–after he cuts a wide swath through the streets and alleys of the rest of the city, of course.

This third installment of this urban fantasy series is full-to-the-brim with action, adventure, mystery, and more than a touch of on again/off again/on again romance. Some questions get answered, but more questions get asked. There is certainly no happily ever after. If anything, the stakes are raised in DJ’s personal and political relationships.

DJ is now the lone sentinel for New Orleans. She has the chance to see if she and her former co-sentinel, Alex Warin, can finally act on their mutual sizzling attraction. Naturally there are a ton of roadblocks, and not just the fact that Alex likes his universe neat, tidy and rule-abiding and DJ is a rule-breaking chaos magnet.

DJ is still trying to help Alex’ cousin Jake, who got turned into a loup-garou (read that as werewolf with an uncontrollably bad attitude, but worse) all the way back in Royal Street. Jake’s uncertain temper finally boils over and he bites her. A whole lot of the angst in the story is driven by the uncertainty of the political fallout if DJ turns furry during the full moon, since the consequences are prison or death for both her and Jake.

That necromancer who is bringing in the Axeman can probably control any of the historical undead. Including DJ’s very good friend the famous historical undead pirate Jean Lafitte. Lafitte remained a pirate because the man couldn’t stand to be controlled by anyone, including the government, when he was alive. Being dead for over two centuries hasn’t changed that. And the more we see of Lafitte, the more I wonder about how he really feels about DJ. I think she underestimates his emotional involvement. We’ll see.

Then there’s her mysterious neighbor Quince Randolph. DJ was right, he was definitely up to no good. He was up to way more no good than she thought, and she should never have let herself be alone in a room with him. Why she trusted him even that far I’ll never know. Let alone what came after.

And we have vampires. Do we ever. And because we have vampires, DJ is up to her neck in political complications–even if this time it isn’t strictly the vampires’ fault.
Blame it all on the elves. And on DJ’s propensity to leap well before she looks, a tendency guaranteed to always take her out of the frying pan and into yet another fire. Assuming that she didn’t start the fire herself.

Escape Rating A-: The Sentinels of New Orleans series is completely made of awesome. If you love urban fantasy, get Royal Street, which is not only a fantastic series start but also a heartrending story about the post-Katrina recovery (see review for details).

DJ is a chaos magnet of the first order. (If Loki or Coyote turn out to be one of her ancestors, I would not totally be surprised, but I digress). Everything she touches turns sideways. It makes her a fantastic character to follow, but probably too scary to live with.

Which leads to the love quadrangle. I think it’s a quadrangle. Jake-Alex-Quince-Jean. She started the series interested in both Jake and Alex Warin, who are cousins not brothers. She can’t get over her guilt about Jake becoming a loup-garou, basically an uncontrollable werewolf. and she and Alex have been both friends and work partners for years now. But Alex needs square corners–and DJ is a rebel. There are long-term problems that are short term covered by really hot chemistry.

Quince Randolph has been up to no good since he showed up in River Road (reviewed here). How much no good (it’s a ton) turns out to be a huge part of Elysian Fields. Quince is out for Quince and he’s not listening to DJ. He’s one of those smarmy bastards who is just sure he knows best. Why DJ trusted him in the same room with herself, I did not understand. Even out of expediency.

Then there is the pirate Jean Lafitte. I have a strange feeling that his, well, feelings for DJ may be more than DJ believes they are. Just because he is one of the historical undead doesn’t mean that his heart can’t sneak up on him.

But the plot of Elysian Fields has to do with magical power and the control of political power, as well as how closely intertwined those two are. Also a huge, giant, axe-wielding red herring. The political skullduggery was impressively underhanded. Also occasionally overhanded along with a couple of curveballs.

It was easy to guess who the “little bad” was, but the “bigger bad” came out of left field, particularly in the “why” department. There are clues lying around that DJ’s future is going to be very, very messy.

And that’s what makes this series so fascinating. Even though parsing out DJ’s potential love interests is entertaining (very) what keeps this reader glued to her iPad is watching the heroine grow and cope with each adventure and change and devastation that comes her way.

DJ Jaco kicks ass. Sometimes after she sets it on fire.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Finding Camlann by Sean Pidgeon

Posted on September 5, 2013September 7, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: hardcover borrowed from the library
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Released: January 7, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

An ancient poem and a mysterious burial inspire an enthralling historical and literary quest.

Despite the wealth of scholarship that pretends to offer proof, archaeologist Donald Gladstone knows there is no solid evidence that a real King Arthur ever existed. Still, the great popular tales spun by medieval historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, and embroidered by Chrétien de Troyes, Sir Thomas Malory, and so many others, must have found their inspiration somewhere. A dramatic archaeological find at Stonehenge and the rediscovery of an old Welsh battle poem, buried among the manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, open up enticing—and misleading—new possibilities.

When the beguiling Julia Llewellyn, a linguist working on the Oxford English Dictionary, joins Donald on the trail of clues, their fervent enthusiasms, unusual gifts, and unfulfilled yearnings prove a combustible mix. Their impassioned search for truths buried deep in the past, amid the secret places and half-forgotten legends of the British countryside, must ultimately transform them—and all our understandings of the origins of Arthur.

My Review:

The story begins as that of an archaeologist, Donald Gladstone, who is trying to debunk all of the romanticized legends of King Arthur in a book of popular scholarship. Unfortunately for our poor modern day hero, he isn’t able to say who or what Arthur was, only what he was not. It is not an auspicious start. Readers generally want something definitive, as his editor keeps reminding him.

Like the quest for the Holy Grail, Finding Camlann is a quest story. Donald Gladstone is searching, not for the true cup, but for the true story of the “once and future king”. His search leads him to the historic sources for the Arthurian legend, and he finds them sadly lacking. Hence his difficulty in determining what Arthur was.

But as he continues to delve into the material, he discovers that even misty legends must have a reason for someone to have needed the cloak of their legend for inspiration. Or there really was an ancient document behind the fabrication after all.

Gladstone’s quest is the pursuit of what lies beneath the layers of fiction. We see his research, how each painstaking clue leads to another fragile lead, one century back beyond another. He reveals how history gets made, and how it gets destroyed by mold and rot.

And how pursuing it to obsession can equally destroy a man’s life.

Escape Rating B+: For the reader, Finding Camlann has the feel of armchair research. In some ways, it reminded me a bit of Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time, with the notable exception that the researcher in this case was not “laid up”, but the reader does follow his search vicariously nonetheless.

Glyndwr Coronation from Wikipedia — The Coronation of Owain Glyndwr as Prince of Wales in 1404

Although the historical search is for King Arthur, the personages who are also found along the way are equally the historian Geoffrey of Monmouth and Owain Glyndŵr, the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. The links between Arthur (also Welsh) and Owain were fascinatingly explored through the research. The way the stories blended, I couldn’t tell how much of the research was “real” and how much fictionalized for the purposes of the story.

And it didn’t matter, it carried me along, marvelously, just like the best of Arthurian legends.

There is a “framing story” here, the contemporary life of Gladstone and Julia Llewellyn, a lexicographer at the Oxford English Dictionary who begins by helping him find a lost poem that might be about Glyndŵr and might be about Arthur. Their friendship is the catalyst for changes in both their lives. The push and pull between them and the others in their orbit often move events.

But it’s the search that haunts the reader and keeps the story pushing forward. At the end, the forward step is into the possibility of glory. Or awakening. But certainly into change beyond imagining. And the author leaves the characters, and the reader stepping into the indescribable, and undescribed, unknown.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Among Others by Jo Walton

Posted on September 4, 2013December 1, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | 4 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook borrowed from the Library
Number of Pages: 302 pages
Release Date: January 18, 2011
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Formats Available: Hardcover, Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s website | Publisher’s website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

Startling, unusual, and yet irresistably readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled–and her twin sister dead.

Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England–a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off…

Combining elements of autobiography with flights of imagination in the manner of novels like Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude, this is potentially a breakout book for an author whose genius has already been hailed by peers like Kelly Link, Sarah Weinman, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

My Thoughts:

“If you love books enough, books will love you back.”

Having read Jo Walton’s Among Others during WorldCon, I can’t help but wonder how many of the people around me at the Con have read the book, particularly since it won the Hugo in 2012 (and the Nebula in 2011).

I know that a significant number of that audience share the same feeling as the protagonist of the story, that books, and especially science fiction, saved her sanity if not actually her life. It’s part of what brought us all together, after all.

And yes, me too.

The story is that of a girl just falling over the boundary into young womanhood, who lives on the broken borders of too many worlds, and is trying to repair the breakage in all of them. At the beginning, her love of science fiction seems to be the only thing that helps her hold herself together.

Morwenna Phelps is a Welsh girl who is forced to go to an upper-crust English boarding school. She is a twin who is still suffering from the death of her literal other half in an automobile accident that has left her disabled, possibly permanently.

She has lost the only home she has ever known and been forced into the care of a father with whom she has never had any contact. Because her mother is a mad woman that her family refuses to deal with properly.

And/or depending upon one’s perspective, because her mother is a dark witch who is trying to capture her and use her to power an evil spell. It was in the thwarting of her mother’s earlier attempt that her twin lost her life.

Mori sees fairies and uses magic to counter her mother’s witchcraft. Or is it the last vestiges of her childish need to cope with her mother’s madness?

Whatever the case may be, Mori copes with everything the universe has thrown at her, including an entire school full of mean girls and a father who frequently forgets that she exists, by escaping into the far flung worlds of science fiction.

It is in the star empires of the grand masters that she finds kindred spirits, not just between the pages of books, but among the other science fiction lovers in the library and the town who meet each week to discuss great, and sometimes not-so-great, lit.

In pursuit of the fictional future, whether hopeful or dystopian, Mori discovers the way to meet her own.

Verdict: Among Others contains elements of autobiography, a mix-in of “contemporary” fantasy, and loads of love for books and libraries.

I put “contemporary” in quotes because the story is set in the late 1970’s, due to the autobiographical elements in the story. The author herself grew up in Aberdare, as the heroine did, and was both disabled and sent to an English boarding school, paralleling the character in the story. No twin. (Lovely interview in the Austin Chronicle with more details)

There was a part of me that kept wondering whether Mori’s “seeing fairies” and practicing magic was real, or if it was a coping mechanism for everything she was going through. I’m not sure that mattered to my enjoyment of the story, but it niggled at me a bit.

The heart of the story is how Mori keeps herself going through her love of reading science fiction and fantasy. It’s not just that she reads, but that we hear what she thinks about what she reads. So there’s Mori’s thoughts on which writers and books she loved, and disliked, and why, along with what is happening to Mori and what she’s doing to counteract the bad crap going on in her daily life.

Fair warning: reading this book is guaranteed to add to your TBR pile. Mori is passionate about the books she loves. Also the ones she hates. But she will convince you to read, or re-read something. Several somethings.

But Among Others is, above all, a passionate reminder that we can, and do, rescue ourselves, if we just keep on doing. With time and a little help from our friends. Not if we keep on trying, but if we keep on doing. Mori and Yoda would have gotten on like a house on fire.

I give Among Others by Jo Walton 4 and ½ twinkling stars.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Cast in Sorrow by Michelle Sagara

Posted on September 4, 2013September 7, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Chronicles of Elantra, #9
Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Luna
Date Released: August 27, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

THE END OF HER JOURNEY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING…

The Barrani would be happy to see her die. So Kaylin Neya is a bit surprised by her safe arrival in the West March. Especially when enemies new and old surround her and those she would call friends are equally dangerous…

And then the real trouble starts. Kaylin’s assignment is to be a “harmoniste”—one who helps tell the truth behind a Barrani Recitation. But in a land where words are more effective than weapons, Kaylin’s duties are deadly. With the wrong phrase she could tear a people further asunder. And with the right ones…well, then she might be able to heal a blight on a race.

If only she understood the story….

My Review:

You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl.

Kaylin Neya is a Private in the Imperial Hawks of Elantra. She may be a lot of other things, and she may have had a lot of other identities thrust upon her, but at her core, that is the identity she has chosen for herself.

Which makes her very much a fish out of water in Cast in Sorrow, because the entire story takes place not just outside the city, but outside of any city. Kaylin has been maneuvered into being part of a Barrani ritual that might result in her death. Or it might heal a centuries-old rift in this immortal race.

All Kaylin wants to do is survive, and bring all of her friends out with her. It is a much taller order than Kaylin begins the journey with, back at the start of Cast in Peril (reviewed here) because centuries ago, when her friend and fellow Hawk Teela was young, Teela participated in this same ritual and was used as Kaylin is being used. But Teela was damaged, and her return is also part of a game that is being played.

But if this is a game, who is the player, and who, exactly, is being played? And why? What part do the events of Teela’s past play in the damage to the Barrani race being done in the present? Why did Lord Nightshade arrange for Kaylin to become part of this ritual? Why has he toyed with her life?

And is that little dragon Kaylin carries on her shoulder the most powerful creature of all?

Escape Rating B+: Cast in Sorrow picks up almost moments after Cast in Peril ends; they are practically one story. I would not recommend attempting to start the series here. Actually, if you are interested in a combination of urban fantasy and high fantasy, start with either Cast in Moonlight or Cast in Shadow.

And thereby hangs a bit of a problem. The strength of the storytelling is in the city, and Cast In Sorrow is set totally in the West March. Kaylin is out of her element and so are we. Even stranger, the West March is literally unmapped, and I felt lost at times. I still wanted to find out what was happening, but Kaylin’s fish-out-of-water perspective left me completely “at sea” without the familiar background of the city to keep the story grounded.

However, the strength of the story was in filling in a ton of background about Teela, the Barrani, and even about Nightshade. Finding out the whole, or maybe most, of how and why Teela, out of all the Barrani High Court, came to the Hawks was fascinating. We see what made her who and what she is. The unique circumstances that would make an immortal “adopt” a mortal like Kaylin as first a “mascot”, and then a friend.

Nightshade’s maneuverings both become clearer and murkier at the same time, which is marvelous.

Then there’s the small dragon, Kaylin’s “familiar”. How she handled that was awesome.

Kaylin will be back next year in Cast in Flame. And she’ll be home where she belongs in Elantra…YAY!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: The Mystery Woman by Amanda Quick

Posted on September 3, 2013August 11, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: hardcover borrowed from the Library
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, audiobook
Genre: paranormal romance, historical romance
Series: Ladies of Lantern Street, #2
Length: 385 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Released: April 23, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Under the plain gray skirts of Miss Beatrice Lockwood’s gown, a pistol waits at the ready. For Beatrice is a paid companion on a secret mission—and with a secret past—and she must be prepared to fight for her life at any moment.

Yet she is thrown oddly off guard by the fierce-looking man who joins her in foiling a crime outside a fancy ball—and then disappears into the shadows, leaving only his card. His name is Joshua Gage, and he claims to know Beatrice’s employers. Beyond that, he is an enigma with a hypnotically calm voice and an ebony-and-steel cane…

Joshua, who carries out clandestine investigations for the Crown, is equally intrigued. He has a personal interest in Miss Lockwood, a suspected thief and murderer, not to mention a fraudster who claims to have psychical powers. The quest to discover her whereabouts has pulled him away from his mournful impulses to hurl himself into the sea—and engaged his curiosity about the real Beatrice Lockwood, whose spirit, he suspects, is not as delicate as her face and figure.

He does know one thing, though: This flame-haired beauty was present the night Roland Fleming died at the Academy of the Occult. Guilty or not, she is his guide to a trail of blood and blackmail, mesmerism and madness—a path that will lead both of them into the clutches of a killer who calls himself the Bone Man…

My Review:

There was both a mystery woman and a mystery man in this second installment of Amanda Quick’s Ladies of Lantern Street trilogy. I wouldn’t mind a bit if the owners of the Flint & Marsh Agency on Lantern Street found a few more operatives and kept this series going!

Beatrice Lockwood is very much the mystery woman. She starts out as Miranda the Clairvoyant of Dr. Fleming’s Academy of the Occult and ends by attempting to raise the dead. Needless to say, there is a LOT of story in the middle!

And even though Beatrice believes in the paranormal, and definitely has talent, she knows perfectly well that raising the dead is beyond anyone’s ability. But the madman pursuing her is convinced otherwise, and doesn’t care how many other corpses he has to make in order to reach her.

Yes, he’s a bit illogical about it. After all, he’s insane.

Meanwhile, Beatrice is in a bind. The madman is after her for her power. Joshua Gage is after her for much more mundane reasons. He starts out convinced that she’s blackmailing his sister over secrets she learned while posing as Miranda the Clairvoyant.

First, Bea is no blackmailer. Second, she learned no secrets. Third, Joshua has been misled into this case for all the wrong reasons. But someone made a mistake. Because Joshua realizes that while Bea may not be the blackmailer, she is the center of the case, and that they are stronger if they join forces.

Even though Joshua emphatically does not believe in the paranormal, their forces are very considerable. Especially once they realize that the most important thing they have discovered in this case is their need for each other.

But can they discover who is behind the madness before it is too late?

Escape Rating B+: The Mystery Woman was even better than Crystal Gardens (reviewed here). It didn’t have the weight of needing to explain the set up of the story, and the plot was stronger. There were more twists and turns to the mystery. It was much eerier and more diabolical.

Joshua’s story had a lot of depth. He underwent much more of a transformation. He starts the story having been in kind of retreat after a case went badly. This turns out to be the real heart of the story in The Mystery Woman. Joshua was an espionage agent for the government, and his mentor’s daughter as well as a fellow agent died on his last case. Joshua blames himself. He also injured his leg and uses a cane as a result.

Of course, it’s not that simple. The complications are what we learn in the story.
The Egyptology trappings are fascinating. There really was an Egyptology craze in England in the 19th century, so this part really works well!

That Bea not only has a paranormal talent but believes in the paranormal, where Josh has a talent but refuses to believe in anything remotely psychic provides for endless but entertaining banter. He represents the skeptic’s point of view marvelously.

But they not only fall in love, they accept each other. Which helps Josh to accept himself as he is now; injuries, scars and all. They each let go of their past identities so they can build a future together.

Bea does not raise the dead. But she and Josh do rise from the ashes of the past.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Labor Day 2013

Posted on September 2, 2013August 25, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Holidays> Labor Day> Seasons

Today is Labor Day in the U.S. For a lot of us, that means a three-day weekend (I’m still on vacation and still at WorldCon)

This also marks the unofficial end of summer and the beginning of fall. But looking for an image to add to this post, I cam across the one below in Wikipedia. It’s from the Labor Day Parade in New York in 1908. This is the float of the Women’s Trade Union League. Look at the women on the float, and at the spectators. It reminds of us of how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go.

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Supernatural New Orleans: A Few Theories by Suzanne Johnson

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Supernatural New Orleans: A Few Theories
by Suzanne Johnson

TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY