Review: Seducing the Tycoon by MK Meredith + Giveaway

Review: Seducing the Tycoon by MK Meredith + GiveawaySeducing the Tycoon by M.K. Meredith
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Pages: 220
Published by Entangled: Indulgence on September 19th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

International tycoon Drago De Luca has the world at his feet and he knows it. But back home in Italy, his beloved grandmother's family inn is on the verge of closing down for good, thanks to hotshot American heiress, Chase Huntington, and her new hotel. Drago has to protect Nonna's inn, even if it means getting close enough to Chase to convince her she needs to leave. But the more time he spends with Chase, the more he's drawn to her passion, her love of his culture, and the way she looks in those Louis Vuitton heels.
Chase Huntington would give anything to enjoy her time with charming, sexy-as-hell Drago in the style capital of the world, but she has to make sure the new Huntington hotel opens successfully. How else can she prove she's not just fashionista with a fortune—she’s an heiress savvy enough to take over the family’s biggest hotel back in California? But somewhere between boutiques and business plans, she falls head over Louboutins for Drago. But when Drago's true motive for spending so much time with her comes to light, it could destroy everything Chase built and everything she thought she found in Italy.

My Review:

I’m not sure whether readers will fall in love with the hero, but they will certainly fall in love with the setting! Whatever one thinks of the romance, Seducing the Tycoon definitely seduces the reader into falling for the many, many charms of Ferrara Italy.

Just as the heroine does.

This is the kind of story that always drives me just a bit crazy. The hero is lying to the heroine from the first moment they meet. There’s no misunderstandammit here. The hero begins the story by lying every time he opens his mouth. As the story progresses, he finds himself moving from lying all the time to only lying some of the time to trying to redeem all of the lies he has told before they jump up and bite him in his perfect ass.

Of course he fails. But watching him walk the tightrope and wondering when he’s going to fall off makes for a surprisingly compelling read.

This one has an unusual set up for a “marrying the billionaire” type of romance. Usually in these stories, the hero is rich and the heroine definitely isn’t. But in this particularly twist, no one is crying in their beer. Chase Huntington is every bit as wealthy an heiress, possibly more, as Drago De Luca is a business tycoon. The difference is that she inherited hers, while he made his. But Chase isn’t resting on her well-upholstered laurels. Instead, she has come to Ferrara to open the newest jewel in her family’s crown of upscale, luxury, boutique hotels. She’s been promised that if the Ferrara opening is a success, she’ll be able to secure her dream job of running the company’s Malibu hotel.

Malibu is where Chase’s family and friends are, and she’s ready to give up living out of suitcases and find a place that she can finally call home.

Drago feels duty-bound to spoil her plans, and initially doesn’t care how many of her hopes and dreams he destroys along the way. He comes into the story certain that she is a pampered rich girl who won’t be hurt by his underhanded dealings. Drago’s grandmother owns a beautiful little local inn, and running Nonna’s Inn is Nonna’s livelihood and her life. Huntington Hotels has scheduled the opening of their Ferrara hotel on the same day as Nonna’s re-opening. Drago is certain, and probably correct, that the Huntington Hotel’s publicity barrage will swamp the news, and Nonna’s re-opening will be lost in all the Huntington hoopla.

So Drago sets out to postpone the Huntington Hotel’s opening at all costs. He is certain that he can swoop in and turn “his” town against the American interloper, while sabotaging her workers and her suppliers with threats of retaliation from his many Italian holdings. He manages to step in when Chase’s on-site manager and translator runs off, and gets himself even more involved with Chase’s efforts, and the sabotaging thereof.

What Drago doesn’t count on is Chase’s own charm. Not just her obvious beauty, but the way that she truly does care about her hotel, her staff and the town in which she plans to make her mark. His threats aren’t able to keep the townspeople from falling for the American woman who takes their needs to heart, and he is finally exposed for the scum that he is.

Only to discover that Chase’s warmth and charm have won over more than just the town. And that it is far, far too late to fix what he broke. Or is it?

Escape Rating B: Seducing the Tycoon is charmingly entertaining from beginning to end. It is wonderfully light and fluffy, with a tender heart in the center.

It’s also terrific that Chase falls in love with the town every bit as much as she falls in love with Drago. Especially since the town never betrays her, while Drago, well, that is the story, isn’t it?

Chase is an easy heroine to like. While she has all the trappings of the rich and beautiful, it’s obvious from the beginning that her heart is in the right place. Her motives for making the Huntington Ferrara hotel a success have nothing to do with “killing” the competition and everything to do with making the hotel “fit” into the town and become a part of it. And her goal is not cutthroat, her goal is to go home. Only to discover that home is not where she thought it was.

One thing that I wish had been explored in more detail is the way that Chase pursues the idea of home because she doesn’t feel that she has one. Her family and friends are in Malibu, and yet her pursuit of that job seems more like it’s where she thinks she ought to be than that she feels the need to be there. Which is why Ferrara is able to pull at her heart.

Drago is not a likable hero. It’s hard to like someone who is lying so much, including, naturally, to himself most of all. His scheme is underhanded from the very beginning, and his Nonna would not approve if she knew about it. In the end, Chase does the right things for the right reasons, and Drago comes off as a heel. Which he should.

We do see more of why on his side. His entire business is based on the ends justifying the means, and he applies those same principles to saving Nonna’s Inn and dealing with Chase. He ends up questioning everything, not just the way he treats Chase, but the way he approaches his business and his family.

With a story like this one, where the hero is very unheroic for most of the story, the satisfaction of the HEA, at least for this reader, revolves around whether the hero grovels enough to justify the heroine taking him back.

neville longbottom all grown upI found it extremely satisfying to watch him squirm. I’ll let you be the judge of whether he squirmed enough.

Reviewer’s note: Every time I looked at the cover of this book, I kept thinking that the cover model looked awfully familiar. I think it’s a very grown-up Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter movies. I’ll let you be the judge of that, too.

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Review; Not Quite Perfect by Catherine Bybee + Giveaway

Review; Not Quite Perfect by Catherine Bybee + GiveawayNot Quite Perfect by Catherine Bybee
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Series: Not Quite #5
Pages: 314
Published by Montlake Romance on September 20th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleBookshop.org
Goodreads

New York Times bestselling author Catherine Bybee delivers the fifth heartwarming, flirty novel in the wildly popular Not Quite series.
Mary Kildare knows how to read people. It’s both why she makes a great therapist and why she refuses to trust the average bachelor. Staying fiercely independent has been her primary relationship strategy—until wealthy playboy pilot (and commitmentphobe) Glen Fairchild reappears in her life. After a yearlong teasing tug-of-war, Mary and Glen test the waters of attraction, only to find that their physical chemistry runs deeper than flirtation.
At first, a bicoastal romance suits them both—especially since Glen can swoop in and whisk Mary away on one of his company’s planes. But no matter how close they get, they’re still three thousand miles apart. And when Mary’s life is threatened, Glen realizes the one luxury he doesn’t have is time. Can he close the distance between them before it’s too late?

My Review:

I was first introduced to Catherine Bybee’s books via her MacCoinnich Time Travel series. I absolutely adored them, and wish there were a few more.

Since then, I have dipped or dived into her contemporary romance series, have found them to be just as much fun as time travel. But I seldom seem to catch them from the beginning. Her Not Quite series is no exception. I have them all, I just haven’t managed to find a round tuit yet.

not quite forever by catherine bybeeI started on this series with book 4, Not Quite Forever, which shows that it is not necessary to read this series from the beginning to enjoy whichever book is before you at the moment. This is certainly true with book 5, Not Quite Perfect. While it isn’t quite perfect, it is quite a lot of fun.

For those of us who have read Not Quite Forever, we’ve met these characters before. Mary Kildare is Dakota Laurens’ BFF. Her husband Walt is best buds with the Fairchild family, and Glen Fairchild and Mary Kildare struck sparks off of each other every time they met in that earlier story.

But Not Quite Perfect is their story. And they are not quite perfect for each other. Glen Fairchild is just what the blurb calls him – a handsome player. He’s not even looking for Ms. Right Now, more like Ms. Right Tonight. But he can’t get Mary out of his head.

And Mary is not looking for a commitphobe like Glen, while not admitting that she really isn’t willing to let anyone into her life. Mary is used to people letting her down, and she is afraid to let anyone get close enough that she begins to rely on that person. She was abandoned at a Catholic church as an infant, and is sure that anyone else she needs will abandon her as well.

Which doesn’t mean that she hasn’t managed to let some people into her life. The ex-nun who raised her, the former Sister Mary Frances, is her mother in everything but name. And BFF Dakota is the sister she never had.

But Mary is a psychologist who tends to diagnose first and ask questions later. She knows that Glen is a player, which means he can’t be relied upon. Until he proves that he can. If she will let him.

Escape Rating B+: This series is just plain good mind-candy. If you want to be swept away for a few hours, this is a great place to start.

In some ways, this is a typical contemporary romance – serious woman meets player, and sparks fly everywhere. Glen isn’t a bad guy, but Mary is certain he is bad for her. She doesn’t do casual. The problem is that right now, she isn’t doing anyone at all.

Glen decides to pursue Mary for real, because he can’t get her out of his head. And Mary decides to let him, because she can’t seem to forget him, either, not even after a year of trying.

We don’t really see Glen deal with whatever his issues might have been about commitments and avoiding them like the plague. Mary is the woman he has been waiting for, and once he figures that out, he’s all in – even before he recognizes that it’s already happened.

Mary’s story is more complicated, both because we see more of her internal dilemma, and because her external dilemma takes center stage. Someone is stalking her and she doesn’t have a clue who it might be. She doesn’t have an ex, possessive or otherwise, or at least not since college several years ago.

If one of her patients has gone off the deep end, she can’t pinpoint who it might be. If some of her marriage counseling patients went after each other, it wouldn’t be a total surprise, but she can’t see who might feel so personally betrayed by her that they would break into her house and trash it, while stealing nothing at all.

Whatever it is, it’s personal.

But as bad as the stalking is, it makes her change her life. As Glen sticks by her through thick, thin and a cross-country relationship, she learns that she can lean on him when she needs to, and that he’ll be there. It’s a lovely surprise for both of them, in the midst of a mess that nearly claims her life.

What makes the story special is that even when the chips are very, very down, Glen doesn’t ride to the rescue. It’s Mary’s story and Mary’s agency. Mary rescues herself. But she is finally ready to let Glen help her pick up the pieces – after the mess is over.

And that’s awesome.

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Review: Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah and Agatha Christie

Review: Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah and Agatha ChristieClosed Casket (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #2) by Sophie Hannah, Agatha Christie
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Series: New Hercule Poirot #2
Pages: 320
Published by William Morrow on September 6th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

The world's most famous detective returns in this ingenious, stylish, and altogether delicious mystery from the author of the instant bestseller The Monogram Murders ("I was thrilled" -- Gillian Flynn).
"What I intend to say to you will come as a shock..."
With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford -- one of the world's most beloved children's authors -- springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . . and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live.
Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited -- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why -- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it -- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?
Addictive, ferociously clever, and packed with clues, wit, and murder, Closed Casket is a triumph from the author whose work is "as tricky as anything written by Agatha Christie" (Alexander McCall Smith, The New York Times Book Review).

My Review:

monogram murders by sophie hannah and agatha christieJust as in last year’s Poirot, The Monogram Murders, Closed Casket provides an extremely convoluted but incredibly fun trip back to the world of Agatha Christie’s most famous detective, the eccentric Belgian Hercule Poirot.

This case is somewhat of a direct followup to the one in The Monogram Murders. While none of the victims or suspects in that case reappear, Poirot’s young police friend and official cover, Edward Catchpool, is an integral part of this case as well.

And poor Catchpool, every time someone meets him, they refer back to that dreadful case. The solution was not dreadful at all, but Catchpool is all too aware that he did not exactly cover himself in glory, and all of the reporting on that case made his situation even worse. It was Poirot’s case, and the entire world knows it, much to Catchpool’s chagrin.

Which makes his discovery that Poirot has also been invited to Lady Athelinda Playford’s house party in Ireland both welcome and galling at the same time. Catchpool wants to solve whatever is about to happen all on his own, but he is aware that he still needs Poirot’s help. And he’s also just plain glad to see the irascible little fellow, especially as the other occupants of the household are less than agreeable. To say the least. Catchpool and Poirot have been dropped into the middle of a family melodrama, where everyone seems to be showing their worst side to everyone else.

Of course somebody ends up dead. And of course it is up to Poirot and Catchpool to figure out whodunnit.

Escape Rating B: This one is every bit as much fun as The Monogram Murders, and feels very much in the style of the later seasons of the Poirot series. Not only because Inspector Japp, Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon no longer seem to be members of Poirot’s inner circle, but also because the original mover of events, Lady Athelinda Playford, bears a sharp resemblance to Lady Ariadne Oliver of those later stories.

Lady Playford is the author of a series of children’s mystery books featuring her precocious ten-year-old heroine Shrimp Seddon. As Catchpool puts in, Shrimp is left to solve so many convoluted mysteries because the police assigned to the case are Inspector Imbecile and Sergeant Halfwit.

It’s a bit of irony that the pair of Irish gardai who come to investigate the real-life murder might double for the coppers in Shrimp Seddon’s adventures. Of course it is up to Poirot and Catchpool to handle the real investigation, over the stringent objections of their avatar of Inspector Imbecile.

Parts of this case are obvious from the beginning. Not so much the whodunnit as the why somebody dunnit. This is a case with motives aplenty. Nearly everyone wanted the dead man to be dead, albeit for different reasons. And the initial investigation rules out very few of the possibilities.

There are oodles of tempting red herrings, and all of them prove tasty to the investigation, at least for a time.

Much of this case revolves around psychology. The psychology of the killer, but mostly the psychology of the victim. The motives in the end would work as well in a 21st century thriller as they do this early-20th century murder mystery. But the melodrama is pure Poirot.

closet casket uk coverAnd just as with The Monogram Murders, the UK cover of Closed Casket does a much better job of capturing the Art Deco style that I associate with Poirot than the US cover. C’est la vie.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews and features.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-18-16

Sunday Post

I may not have had any new books to put in my Stacking the Shelves post yesterday, but I already have plenty of books in my virtually towering TBR pile. Maybe I’ll get a smidgen caught up. Probably not.

This past week was an excellent one for books. Carry On was a big surprise, but it’s not often that I have a week of all A- reviews. I choose which cover is highlighted next to the recap based on which book was the best. I’m spoiled for choice this week because they were all best. I’m looking forward to next week too – there are definitely a couple of winners in there!

unbe leaf able september to remember giveaway hopCurrent Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the UnBe-Leaf-Able September to Remember Giveaway Hop

mad lizard mambo by rhys fordBlog Recap:

A- Review: Carry On by Lisa Fenn
A- Review: The White Mirror by Elsa Hart
UnBe-Leaf-Able September to Remember Giveaway Hop
A- Review: Mad Lizard Mambo by Rhys Ford
A- Review: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Stacking the Shelves (202)

girl in the castle by santa montefioreComing Next Week:

Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah and Agatha Christie (blog tour review)
Not Quite Perfect by Catherine Bybee (blog tour review)
Seducing the Tycoon by MK Meredith (blog tour review)
The Girl in the Castle by Santa Montefiore (review)
A Truck Full of Money by Tracy Kidder (review)

Stacking the Shelves (202)

Stacking the Shelves

This has never happened before. I got nothin’. I didn’t see any books that appealed to me either at Edelweiss or NetGalley, and my hold on Apprentice in Death by J.D. Robb has not come in at the library.

Instead, I have a kitten. Freddie, who was finally named for Frederick the Literate in the Charles Wysocki print, has been living in my office this week and hiding in the bookcase. He and Mellie have growled at each other enough under the door that we let him have the run of the house. We are hoping to eventually achieve peace in our time, but Freddie and Mellie are still scrapping. Every time she gets her floofy dander up, he finds himself another bookcase and hides behind the bottom row.

Books provide an escape for everyone. Even kittens.

freddie in the stacks

 

Review: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Review: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee ShetterlyHidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, movie!
Pages: 368
Published by William Morrow on September 6th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program—and whose contributions have been unheralded, until now.
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as “Human Computers,” calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws, these “colored computers,” as they were known, used slide rules, adding machines, and pencil and paper to support America’s fledgling aeronautics industry, and helped write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.
Drawing on the oral histories of scores of these “computers,” personal recollections, interviews with NASA executives and engineers, archival documents, correspondence, and reporting from the era, Hidden Figures recalls America’s greatest adventure and NASA’s groundbreaking successes through the experiences of five spunky, courageous, intelligent, determined, and patriotic women: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Gloria Champine.
Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women’s rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a rich history of scientific achievement and technological innovation with the intimate stories of five women whose work forever changed the world—and whose lives show how out of one of America’s most painful histories came one of its proudest moments.

My Review:

Hidden Figures tells an absolutely fascinating story; a story that is all the better for being true.

Once upon a time, a computer was not a piece of machinery. Once upon a time, a computer was a human being, usually a woman, who was just about a genius in mathematics. In spite of the fact that most people believed, rather foolishly, that women weren’t capable of either higher mathematics or professional achievement, this is the story of a group of women who did both, plotting trajectories and engineering airplane designs that led from the battlefields of World War II to the moon.

Although a piece of this story was also told this year in Rise of the Rocket Girls, the struggle for achievement and recognition is even more striking in Hidden Figures. All of the hidden figures in this book were hidden twice, once by their gender, and again by their race.

Hidden Figures is the story of the black women who began their careers, or in some cases re-started their careers, within the segregated confines of West Computing at what is now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Jim Crow era Hampton Virginia during WWII.

It was a job with endless demands, huge requirements and never enough people to fill the positions. During World War II, Langley was THE place for aviation and aeronautic engineering. The space race wasn’t yet a gleam in anyone’s eye, even as crazy as the NACA nuts could sometimes be. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was behind America’s superiority in the air in WW2. But to achieve that superiority required hordes of engineers and battalions of human computers to create and confirm mathematical formulas for everything from missile trajectories to drag co-efficients.

Many of those human computers were black women with degrees in mathematics and a desire to either further their careers, make an amazingly good wage for a black woman in the 1940s to support their families, or both.

They faced segregation at the workplace and in the town of Hampton. They created a place for their families and their friends, and a culture of support that made it just a little bit easier for the next black female computer or the next black male engineer to become part of what they all saw as their new home and the place where important work happened.

Hidden Figures is the story of the women who powered the Space Race. Whether by hand and mind, or by electronic computer, they imagined and created, double-checked and rechecked, the trajectories for John Glenn’s famous first flight, Neil Armstrong’s even more famous first moonwalk, and even supplied the Plan B mathematics that helped bring Apollo 13 back from the brink of disaster.

Their story of mostly unsung heroism is quietly brave and bravely daring. In an era where women’s contributions to computing, especially the contributions of women of color are harassed at every turn, this is a story that shows just how much is possible if we are willing to work and fight for it.

hidden figures movie posterEscape Rating A-: There are two aspects to my comments. On the one hand, there is the story itself, which is absolutely awesome and needs to be distributed to the widest audience possible. (There’s a movie coming this winter!) This is one of those stories that, if it were not true, no one would believe it. A story of female professionals succeeding despite the odds in a male dominated profession and workplace. The story of black women thriving professionally and personally in the Jim Crow South.

In the way that Hidden Figures captures the numerous double standards that these women worked and lived under, and the way that they saw themselves both as just doing their jobs and as powerful symbols for their race and sex, there are some parallels to the histories told in both Rise of the Rocket Girls and The Defender. These women worked for their families, for their race, and for themselves and their own personal hopes and dreams.

The history of Langley, the Space Race and the opening of doors in Civil Service employment owes much to the struggles that are documented in The Defender. The doors opened because the Space Race, the ending of colonialism in much of the world, and the Civil Rights movement cast a glaring light on racism in America, and on the ways that segregation denied so many the education needed for the U.S. to compete on the world stage, while making a mockery of America’s calls for freedom and democracy elsewhere in the world.

Some things never change.

Because we see this story through the eyes of specific individuals, it is easy for the reader to empathize with both their struggles and their triumphs, whether the reader meets the characters on several axes, or none.

But as work of authorship, this story has a slow start and initially a few too many foci. There’s also quite a bit of information about aircraft engineering that may border on overload. Once the story moves from the NACA era to the NASA era, the narrative picks up steam and the points of view become more focused.

Minor quibbles aside, this is a book for anyone who is interested in the history of women in engineering and computer, the history of the ways that both race and gender impact opportunities in those fields, and the history of NASA and space flight.

Fittingly one of the stories at the end is the famous story of Martin Luther King Jr. convincing Nichelle Nichols to remain on Star Trek as Lieutenant Uhura, not because of what she actually did onscreen, but because of what she represented. She represented the future of all the women portrayed in Hidden Figures, and their dream to reach the stars.

Review: Mad Lizard Mambo by Rhys Ford

Review: Mad Lizard Mambo by Rhys FordMad Lizard Mambo (Kai Gracen, #2) by Rhys Ford
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Series: Kai Gracen #2
Pages: 220
Published by DSP Publications on September 13th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

Kai Gracen has no intention of being anyone’s pawn. A pity Fate and SoCalGov have a different opinion on the matter.
Licensed Stalkers make their living hunting down monsters and dangerous criminals… and their lives are usually brief, brutal, and thankless. Despite being elfin and cursed with a nearly immortal lifespan, Kai didn’t expect to be any different. Then Ryder, the High Lord of the Southern Rise Court, arrived in San Diego, Kai’s not-so-mundane life went from mild mayhem to full-throttle chaos.
Now an official liaison between the growing Sidhe Court and the human populace, Kai is at Ryder’s beck and call for anything a High Lord might need a Stalker to do. Unfortunately for Kai, this means chasing down a flimsy rumor about an ancient lost Court somewhere in the Nevada desert—a court with powerful magics that might save Ryder—and Kai’s—people from becoming a bloody memory in their Merged world’s violent history.
The race for the elfin people’s salvation opens unwelcome windows into Kai’s murky past, and it could also slam the door on any future he might have with his own kind and Ryder.

My Review:

There’s more than one very mad lizard in this story. Whether or not any or all of them are doing the mambo? I’ll leave you to make your own decision.

What definitely does get danced around is Kai’s heart and soul, and his carefully constructed identity. Kai has stitched together who and what he is around a soft squishy heart and whole lot of tough gristle. To come from where he did, and to do the job he does, that outward projection of untouchable toughness is absolutely necessary.

The soft, gooey center is unexpected. And likely to get him killed.

Black Dog Blues by Rhys FordReaders were first introduced to Kai and his world in the completely awesome Black Dog Blues. And while it is not strictly necessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second, it is highly recommended. It’s been three years for this reader, and I wish I had done some catch up before opening Mad Lizard Mambo.

This world is very complex. In this alternate universe, something folded Underhill, the formerly legendary world of the Sidhe (elves) and Unsidhe (dark elves) into what used to be our world. Some places in each world survived relatively intact, like San Diego, and some places clearly didn’t. The humans and the sidhe fought to determine who would be the apex predator in this new combined reality, and the peace was hard won. Also a bit indeterminate.

Kai has a foot in every camp, and is uncomfortable at best and hunted at worst in all of them. Technically, he is a chimera, a genetic mixture of sidhe and unsidhe, possibly with something else thrown in. But after his first few horrific decades, he was raised by humans who make their living hunting the deadly creatures that now populate the wilderness. So while he may genetically be part of one race, he is socialized in another.

And sidhe and unsidhe are not supposed to be able to mix. Kai may look sidhe, but he knows there is darkness literally buried in his psyche. He doesn’t feel like he really belongs anywhere.

But Ryder, sidhe lord of the Southern Rise Court, believes that Kai belongs to him. Not in any of the terrible ways that Kai has been possessed and used in the past, but in the way of family, friends, and hopefully someday, lovers.

It’s probably going to be a long time before that happens. Kai has been tortured and abused in not just the past, but the very recent present. Ryder may believe that blending all of the races is the key to everyone’s salvation, but Kai is far from certain that he even wants, or deserves to be, saved.

The sidhe are dying out. Slowly but inexorably. Their birth rate is not high enough to maintain a healthy gene pool. Ryder wants to hunt for the possible site of an ancient sidhe fertility ritual, deep in the no-man’s land outside New Vegas. He has gently coerced Kai, by forcing him to abide by his Stalker contract with the SoCalGov, to guide him to a place where no sane being would ever want to go, through lands that are claimed by wild black dog packs and hungry sand dragons.

This quest might be the salvation of the sidhe. It might just get them all killed. And it might deliver Kai to a fate that truly is worse than death.

Escape Rating A-: Mad Lizard Mambo is the wildest of wild rides. If you like your gritty urban fantasy with a side of dragon and only the tiniest glimmer of romance on the far horizon, Kai’s misadventures make for fantastic reading.

I say misadventures because Kai’s life seems to be one long run of “out of the frying pan into the fire” and back again. In his whole life breaks have been very few and far between. In this story, there are none. It’s a non-stop thrill ride that always seems to headed for the bottom of the trough, only to pull up and out at the last possible minute. Then it swoops down again, leaving the reader’s stomach hanging on for dear life as the story twists around the next turn.

Through Kai’s eyes, we see the most post-apocalyptic view of this brave new world. When Underhill folded into our Earth, it left a terrible mess. The three races have achieved an extremely uneasy peace. Kai and his friends make their living by hunting down rare creatures and strange objects out in the desert wastes. The unsidhe seem to see humans as prey to be toyed with and then eaten. The sidhe are only slightly better, they mostly see humans as inferior animals, like pets, or apes who have learned to wear clothes.

Ryder seems to be the only person who recognizes that at least the sidhe and the humans are going to have to band together in order to survive. And while he’s right, getting there is going to be a walk through hell, fighting both the unsidhe and his own family all along the way.

And then there’s Kai, shakily straddling all the worlds, certain that he belongs in none of them. He’s too human to be unsidhe, too unsidhe to be sidhe, and too sidhe to be human. He’s scared to let anyone get too close, because he has no belief that he deserves any consideration at all.

And he is utterly fascinating.

Unbe-Leaf-Able September to Remember Giveaway Hop

unbe leaf able september to remember giveaway hop

Welcome to the UnBe-Leaf-Able September to Remember Giveaway Hop, hosted by The Kids Did It and The Mommy Island.

Spring is Sprung,
Fall is Fell.
Here comes Summer and it’s
Hotter than…last year.

A terrible poem, but easy to fall into its rhythm. Unofficially, Fall is definitely fell, even if the official first day of Fall is a week away. And even if you live somewhere in the U.S., like I do, where Fall mostly means that the daily high temperatures finally drop below 90, and the daily lows finally begin to dip into the 60s. Or the other way around. When I lived in Anchorage, Sept. 21 could be the beginning of winter. Complete with snow!

In Anchorage, this would be the time of year when the regular Autumn ritual was to switch to studded tires. I don’t miss that.

It’s also when school officially or unofficially begins. Some places start earlier now, and some colleges still start a bit later, but crisp fall days always carry with them the memory of starting school and hoping for great teachers and interesting things to learn. Sometimes those hopes are fulfilled, and sometimes the enthusiasm wears off more quickly than in other years. And sometimes we remember those days fondly and think that adulting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

But this giveaway hop celebrates whatever you want to think of best about fall. For me, it just means more opportunities to curl up with a good book. So I’m giving away the winner’s choice of a $10 Gift Card from Amazon or a $10 Book of the winner’s choice.

Happy Fall. May all your apples be crisp, and all your leaves be crunchy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more fabulous Fall prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

Review: The White Mirror by Elsa Hart

Review: The White Mirror by Elsa HartThe White Mirror (Li Du Novels #2) by Elsa Hart
Formats available: hardcover, ebook
Series: Li Du #2
Pages: 320
Published by Minotaur Books on September 6th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

In The White Mirror, the follow-up to Elsa Hart’s critically acclaimed debut, Jade Dragon Mountain, Li Du, an imperial librarian and former exile in 18th century China, is now an independent traveler. He is journeying with a trade caravan bound for Lhasa when a detour brings them to a valley hidden between mountain passes. On the icy planks of a wooden bridge, a monk sits in contemplation. Closer inspection reveals that the monk is dead, apparently of a self-inflicted wound. His robes are rent, revealing a strange symbol painted on his chest.
When the rain turns to snow, the caravan is forced to seek hospitality from the local lord while they wait for the storm to pass. The dead monk, Li Du soon learns, was a reclusive painter. According to the family, his bizarre suicide is not surprising, given his obsession with the demon world. But Li Du is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why did the caravan leader detour to this particular valley? Why does the lord’s heir sleep in the barn like a servant? And who is the mysterious woman traveling through the mountain wilds?
Trapped in the snow, surrounded by secrets and an unexplained grief that haunts the manor, Li Du cannot distract himself from memories he’s tried to leave behind. As he discovers irrefutable evidence of the painter’s murder and pieces together the dark circumstances of his death, Li Du must face the reason he will not go home and, ultimately, the reason why he must.

My Review:

jade dragon mountain by elsa hartIn this second story of the travels of Li Du, exiled Imperial Librarian, he has traveled far from the Court he left behind. But even in this remote mountain valley, it is still very much with him, and not just in his bittersweet memories.

At the end of the marvelous Jade Dragon Mountain, Li Du leaves China intending to travel to Lhasa. Even though his exile has been revoked after the services he renders to the Emperor in that tale, he still feels the urge to travel.

But the further he gets from his home, the more he longs for it. And the more that the mysteries he left behind beckon him to return.

Before that can happen, if it can happen, Li Du must first confront the mysteries that have arisen on his journey. His caravan has been taken off the beaten path, to a remote mountain village, for no reason that he can determine.

And as they reach their destination, Li Du finds himself in the middle of another murder mystery. Just as in Jade Dragon Mountain, Li Du has found another dead priest. But this time, the priest he has found is a Tibetan monk and not a Jesuit priest.

Not that there isn’t a Jesuit involved in this mess, because there is. But this time the Westerner is neither the victim nor the perpetrator. He is lost on a mission of his own. And he is just plain lost.

As the valley is covered in snow, the caravan is stuck waiting for the thaw. And Li Du finds himself incapable of letting the matter rest. The locals want to believe that the bizarre death of the priest is suicide, in spite of many, many clues that make that verdict a bit difficult to swallow. But no one wants to talk about murder.

Except Li Du, and his friend the storyteller Hamza. Li Du may be in pursuit of the truth, but Hamza seems to be looking for a good story. And he tells a bunch of them as he assists his friend.

At first, it seems as if this village murder is a local crime for local reasons. It is all too obvious that someone has designs on the local landowner, his holdings and his pretty wife. There’s a ready made villain, but not one who would have had a reason to kill the more than a bit crazy priest.

Li Du is forced to look far far afield for the reasons behind this crime. He may have left the Imperial Court, but its intrigues have found him. It is up to him to solve the crime before it claims more victims, or before the snow melts and he is forced to leave it all behind.

Escape Rating A-: This story started a bit slower for me than the utterly awesome Jade Dragon Mountain. In the end, I enjoyed The White Mirror very much indeed, but I missed the machinations of the court that permeated the action in the first book. The more this story reached out beyond its remote mountain setting, the faster it flew and the more I loved it.

There are so many delicious red herrings scattered through this snowy landscape. There is some obvious skullduggery going on between the landowner, his wife and his cousin. In that piece of the story there’s a fascinating amount of information about the way that the Dalai Lama and other Lamas are chosen. And how easily that process can be manipulated for both personal and political ends.

At first, it seems as if the current mystery is part of a conspiracy to make the wrong boy a lama, and a different but  equally wrong boy the heir to the household. It’s tragic that both young men have found themselves in situations to which they are not suited, and part of the solution to the crime allows them an opportunity to figure out who they are really meant to be.

But the mystery in The White Mirror, just like the one in Jade Dragon Mountain, involves wheels within wheels, and plots surrounded by counterplots. By the end of the story, we discover that no one is quite who they initially pretended to be. Removing their masks and discovering their true loyalties is what allows Li Du to finally determine not just who murdered the monk, but also why it was done. And just how far the tentacles spread.

And as he unravels the tangled threads, he also unravels the tangle of his own life. Not that he finds a solution to the issues that drove him into exile, but that he finally learns that the only way he can truly solve that mystery is to return to where it all began. He turns for home.

Review: Carry On by Lisa Fenn

Review: Carry On by Lisa FennCarry On: a Story of Resilience, Redemption, and an Unlikely Family by Lisa Fenn
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 256
Published by Harper Wave on August 16th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

In the spirit of The Blind Side and Friday Night Lights comes a tender and profoundly moving memoir about an ESPN producer’s unexpected relationship with two disabled African-American wrestlers from inner-city Cleveland, and how these bonds—blossoming, ultimately, into a most unorthodox family—would transform their lives.
When award-winning ESPN producer Lisa Fenn returned to her hometown for a story about two wrestlers at one of Cleveland’s toughest public high schools, she had no idea that the trip would change her life. Both young men were disadvantaged students with significant physical disabilities. Dartanyon Crockett, the team’s best wrestler, was legally blind as a result of Leber’s disease; Leroy Sutton lost both his legs at eleven, when he was run over by a train. Brought together by wrestling, they had developed a brother-like bond as they worked to overcome their disabilities.
In their time developing the segment together, Fenn formed a profound connection with Dartanyon and Leroy. After earning their trust and their love, she realized she couldn’t just walk away when filming ended. These boys had had to overcome the odds too many times. Instead, Fenn dedicated herself to ensuring their success long after the reporting wqs finished and the story aired—and an unlikely family of three was formed.
The years ahead would be fraught with complex challenges, but Fenn stayed with the boys every step of the way—teaching them essential life skills, helping them heal old wounds and traumatic pasts, and providing the first steady and consistent support system they’d ever had.
This powerful memoir is one of love, hope, faith, and strength—a story about an unusual family and the courage to carry on, even in the most extraordinary circumstances.

My Review:

This isn’t the kind of book I usually read. But I heard the author speak at the American Library Association Annual Conference this year, and something about her story grabbed me. I picked up an ARC, and when the opportunity to join this tour came up, I remembered her speech, and her passion, and decided it was time to find out what she was talking about.

I didn’t watch the original video until just before writing this review. I think it is even more poignant now than it would have been earlier, knowing what I know about the story behind the story. It is a captivating film, and well worth watching. But it is only the beginning of the story, and not the end.

We see a brief portrait like the one that Lisa Fenn did of Dartanyon Crockett and Leroy Sutton back in 2009 and think that it tells us enough to find a way to solve the problem. In some ways, it’s like seeing footage of a natural disaster, and being moved to donate money to help the survivors.

Because that’s what Dartanyon and Leroy both are, survivors. But the often disastrous circumstances that made up their lives were not so easily solved. As Lisa Fenn discovered.

There are two stories in this book. One is the history that led up to Lisa going back home to Cleveland with her ESPN camera crew to film this amazing story of friendship and turn it into an award winning documentary. In order to tell the story of who the two young men had come to be, she had to dive back into all the circumstances that made them who they are. Not just Leroy’s tragic accident and Dartanyon’s congenital blindness, but the circumstances that made life so often precarious in poverty. A cycle that, even with the best will in the world, and all the resources made available by people touched by the video, proved incredibly resistant to cracking. And that’s the second story.

Lisa was supposed to remain distant and unattached. That’s what journalists do. She was supposed to tell the story, not become the story. They touched her heart in ways that she never expected, and she broke all the rules to help give them a chance to succeed beyond their wildest expectations.

It wasn’t easy for any of them, and it was often a journey of two steps forward and one step back, and sometimes the other way around. But it is a journey that compels the reader to follow, every step of the way.

Escape Rating A-: I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. Instead of picking it up and putting it down for a couple of days, instead I picked it up and never put it down until I reached the end of the story. Which isn’t really an end. All of the principals in Carry On live on, in lives that have changed dramatically because of the events told here.

Having heard the author speak, I knew the trajectory of her account before I read it, and I still found it completely absorbing. This is not an easy story, and it is a story that will make you think, but it will draw you in and spit you out at the end, wrung out with emotion.

There was one thing that put this reader off. It is something that many readers will probably feel for, or believe more. Belief being the key. There is an evangelical tone to some of the story. The author commits herself to this cause at some points because she believes it is what she is called to do. Her faith is tangible to her, and a significant part of her story. But while I accept that this is what she believes, it is so far out of my own worldview that I find these points a bit jarring. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

If you are looking for a heartbreaking, heartwarming and uplifting story, Carry On is a great one.

TLC
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