Dead Reckoning

Charlaine Harris does it again.  A solid book. Funny thoughts from our girl Sookie. (I really think that is why I can not bear to see the TV show. I just love her inner dialog in the books.) And more trouble than you can shake a stick at.

If you haven't started these -- do it from the beginning. Sookie's life is a roller coaster ride and this title Dead Reckoning just keeps the crazy happening. I do not think that anyone could pick this one up and jump in. But I'm so entrenched in the Sookieverse, maybe I'm blind. 

This title is a 'filler" series title. What I mean by that, is that some longer plot lines are wrapped up, some seem to be just beginning, and of course all heck breaks loose at least once or twice. (Okay - my favorite part of this book  is Sookie planning a for a mjaor vampire fight and a baby shower at the same time!) And then there are those teases of plots that are yet to come... This title may not move the series and the characters along with leaps and bounds, but these books tend to have a lot buried in them that you notice later... We will see.

Great book. Great series. A fun frothy read!

The Love Goddess' Cooking School

When Holly's Grandmother Camilla dies, she inherits her business - a cooking school, and her house, but does she inherit her 'second sight'? In The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate, that is the question her small Maine town neighbors want to know. But Holly has had problems in her own life, and can't make a marinara sauce. She's not too sure that continuing the cooking school is such a good idea after all. But when she has four students sign up for classes, she decides to give it a try.

Senate does a great job at creating a small town community where everyone knows about everyone else's business. And Holly discovers that her grandmother's life was not all joy and roses. Filled with great characters and greater descriptions of food (you will be craving Italian after this one - trust me), the reader will enjoy reading about Holly's struggles in the kitchen, glimpses of Camilla's strength, and their cooking students growth, both in the kitchen and in their personal lives.

Makes one want to take an Italian cooking class if they are going to be that cool. A fun and frothy read.

Keeping Up With a Series - Part 1 - Dead in the Family

The latest book in the Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series is Dead in the Family. And it proves that even vampires have issues with their relatives. Of course your relatives are not a centuries old vampire from ancient Rome and his latest "child" a haunted Russian boy of a very famous family. Yours might be worse. Or not.

Sookie is having family issues too. She's recovering from the fairy war her great grandfather finished and that she nearly died in. Supposedly the door to the fairy realm has been closed. But she has found out that some have remained behind. And have been on her land. Was it her cousin Claude? He claims not - but he asks to be her roommate for a while...

Lots of things going on in this book, and as in any good saga the reader tries to stay in touch with what has been going on in Sookie's world /community. Some items and scenes of note: Sookie spending time with her little cousin Hunter who hears voices just like she does. Eric trying to stay one step ahead of the latest intrigue in vampire politics. Is his sheriffdom going to last? And he's trying to keep things running smoothly while his "dad" is in town. Sam is having family problems of his own - after the shape shifters have come out to the rest of the world. Are the shape shifters really going to have to be registered with the government? Bill develops a relationship with his modern relatives. And Sookie discovers and finds his "sister" in order to help him recover from the last battle. And just how good has Sookie's and Eric's relationship been lately?

Yep - all this and more. It is a book packed with recovery from the last 'storm' in Sookie's life. And if you read between the lines - or is it just the way Harris is sending us, we can guess some of the major events that might happen in the future. Or not. Harris has a brilliant way of keeping us entertained while we are guessing. And that is one of the reason why this series is so dang good.

I throughly enjoyed my latest glimpse into Sookie's funky universe. And I am eagerly awaiting to see what happens next. But in the meantime I'll enjoy the scenes with Pam (one of my favorite vamps)and Sookie and try not to laugh to loudly. And I'll try to speculate what happens next. It was a very fun and frothy read!

For my other post on the Sookie Stackhouse books - try this link.

The Burning Lamp

Keeping a long running series interesting to it's readers can be a hard thing for a writer to do. Some of the books will sometimes feel rushed and half finished, but others may be just right. Amanda Quick's The Burning Lamp is book eight in the Arcane series by Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz, and it is a good one.

We meet Adelaide Pyne at a young age escaping from a brothel. And taking a mysterious artifact with her. We meet her again as an adult, who has just recently returned from the United States and wearing widow's weeds. She also has been secretly carrying out raids on brothels and rescuing the young girls who are there. She ends up meeting the "Director" of a criminal organization called the "Consortium." Griffin Winters is interested in her because of the raids, but he's even more interested when he finds out that she is a dream light reader and that she has the lamp that was stolen from his murdered parents' home.

Adelaide is not certain what to think of this crime lord, but agrees to help Winters work the lamp to help his paranormal senses and save his sanity. But when their lives are threatened, they must work together to figure out who else wants the lamp and why? Is it another crime lord? Jones and Jones? The Arcane Society?

I think one of the main reasons I like this book is Adelaide's character. It keeps coming out throughout the story that she has had a wilder past (touring with a wild wild west show, etc.) that just being a "social reformer". It makes for an amusing ongoing storyline throughout the book.

Quick/Krentz does a nice job filling in more Arcane lore and filling in gaps from the previous book in the series. I'm looking forward to the next book in the adventure - which she is writing under her Jayne Castle persona. A fun read.

Wild Ride

Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer manage to do it again in their latest book Wild Ride. With action, adventure, and quirky characters, the paranormal storyline take the reader on one heck of a trip.

Dreamland, an old amusement park in Ohio, needs some work. Mab has been working her butt off restoring the park to it's former glory. Her goal is to have it shining for the Halloween celebrations. But it is a little strange that the owners and long time residents Gloria, Gus, and Delpha don't want her working at night. And they are a bit anxious when she is working with the statues of the park mascots. Especially after FunFun the clown seems to run her over - or was that an illusion she had? Maybe she has been working too hard.

Gloria's son Ethan returns from the military and gets shot at on the Dreamland grounds. Who is after the Dreamland residents? And what is up with the midnight roller coaster run? His mom keeps talking about demons. Ethan might just have to sober up to figure this all out. What do you mean he's the new Hunter?

Using humor, and great plotting, Crusie and Mayer lead the reader down the path to figuring out just how paranormal this family park is. With twists and turns galore, it is indeed a roller coster of a ride. Great dialogue and lots of frothy fun! And it makes one want to visit Dreamland for real! A great read.

Fired Up

Fired Up is Jayne Ann Krentz's latest in her Arcane Series. And it is the first book in the Dreamlight Trilogy. Jack Winters believes he has been affected by the family curse. He needs the legendary Burning Lamp and someone with the talent to read the lamp's dreamlight. Chloe Harper comes from a family that would prefer to remain under the Arcane Society's radar. Her family's talents have usually gotten them in trouble. A little forgery, here. A new identity, there. Jack is convinced that Chloe is the investigator who can find the stolen lamp.

But once they have the lamp the fun has just started. For it seems that several groups of people are after the artifact. And only one of them is the Arcane Society. Can Chloe and Jack lie low in the wilds of Las Vegas long enough for her to try to work the lamp? How many people know about this legend anyway? And how is Fallon Jones involved?

Another fine adventure from Krentz. And a fun introduction to a new talented family - the Harpers. For them, going legit, is the crime! A fun fast read!

The Perfect Poison

The Arcane Society continues in Amanda Quick's The Perfect Poison. Quick (who is Jayne Ann Krentz) has written her sixth book in the series - the third historical one. And much to this reader's joy - she keeps the excitement in the series. (Can I tell you how many times books within a long series, have clunkers through out because the author can not keep up the quality?)

Finally Quick brings us Colin's story. Colin Jones' talent is a difficult one - he has a talent for strategy and making connections. He sees the patterns in his head and connects the dots so that the Society and his new project, Jones and Company can figure out what is going on in the battle for the founder's formula. He doesn't have Miss Lucinda Bromley in his pattern however.

Lucinda has a talent for botany - more specifically figuring out what botanic ingredients have been combined to create potions for good or for evil. She's been helping a member of Scotland Yard, with various cases that involve poisons and she discovers that one of the ingredients she has figured out was stolen from her greenhouse. She decides to enlist Jones and Company to find out who the thief is and where is her plant. She also has a bit of a reputation - she is rumored to have poisoned her fiance, and wants things handled as quickly as possible. When they meet - they end up surprising each other - with their talents and intelligence. And when Colin figures out her thief is connected to his quest - the hunt is on.

Quick once again gives us great characters, with pithy dialogue and a roller coaster ride of a plot. And she brings us an excellent subplot of an Arcane Society matchmaker in action. (It would be fun to have her again in another book!) Along the way she manages to deftly fill in more details about the Jones family, the Arcane Society, their history, and their members' talents. I can hardly wait for the next installment! A very good read!

Running Hot

Jayne Ann Krentz's Running Hot continues her Arcane Society series with a bang. Being a member of the society means that you have a paranormal talent, in this case, the aura readers. Aura readers are dismissed as "not important" talents. But what happens if your talent has a twist like Grace's? Or can be used to manipulate others' auras, like Luther's skill? These talents aren't so little any more.

Grace, a society genealogist and aura talent, is on her first assignment for Jones & Jones. It is supposed to be a routine case. She needs to identify a man who is suspected of murder. Her bodyguard showing her the ropes is Luther. Sounds simple. But what happens when they find out there are more sensitives at this hotel than just their suspect. And it looks like they have been experimenting with the Founder's formula. Did they stumble on a meeting for Nightshade? What are the odds?

Grace and Luther make a great team because they are not perfect. They are both people with a past. Their experiences and talents help them in the race to have J&J figure out what is going on in the ongoing battle against Nightshade. It also doesn't hurt that they are attracted to each other.

Krentz has written some great characters here and has set up the next adventure in the Arcane Society series quite nicely. It would be great to see some of Grace and Luther in the next book too. Her secondary characters are developed and she leaves us with a urge to see what is going to happen next to Fallon - who has been in all the books. And she leaves us with more information about the growth of Nightshade, but leaves us dangling to see what is going to happen next. A great series and a fun book. Can't wait for the next one!

Forecast

If you have a talent such as being able to predict the weather, what do you do with it? Become a local "character" in your New York neighborhood? Or become a weather person on TV? Rowie Shakespeare isn't sure if she wants to continue in her family's New Age store called Second Sight. Being from a family of psychics has it's problems for time to time, but Rowie gets her chance on TV - when the regular weatherman Drew is sidelined with an injury.

Jane Tara's book Forecast is a frothy good time. With a family of psychics unsure of themselves, their squabbles and expectations, and with a new romance interest that just happens to be the man whose job she took, Rowie's not sure what to do. She can find lost children but can she find out what she wants to do in life? And is Drew a part of that life? A fun, frothy read.

Ain't Myth-Behaving

Katie MacAlister's book Ain't Myth-Behaving takes romances to a different level. One can count on her books to be fun and have a sense of whimsy - but this one might win! It contains actually two novellas. One tells the story of an Irish god who needs to get married by Beltane otherwise he will cease to exist. His usual goddess has run out on him, but he has met this lovely American tourist who seems to fit the bill. How does he convince her he is real?

The other tale is one of cursed Vikings who only appear on a stretch of Scandinavian coastline. When Brynna is rescued by them - a tale unto itself - one Viking realizes that she may be able to break the curse. Will she help them out? How do you bring home a bunch of Vikings for a family dinner? Anyone know where Odin lives now days?

Brush up on your gods and goddesses folks. You might need it. Myths can be fun. A great read.

Sizzle and Burn

She can touch an item and hear voices. He can touch something and see visions. But what they can see and hear is usually the traces of residual violence. Jayne Anne Krentz's latest, in her Arcane Society series, Sizzle and Burn, has these two people join forces to find out secrets from that past that can effect the Society's future.

Raine Tallentyre is recovering from her Aunt Vella's death and she is trying to get her aunt's affairs in order. Zach Jones is investigating a missing scientific researcher who disappeared the same day that her aunt died. He knows her family history and knows about her "gifts". He offers to join forces with her since she thinks there is something strange about her aunt's death. Raine is soon plunged into a crash course about the Society and it's enemies. As they investigate - it becomes murkier. Are their foes after him? Or her?

This is an excellent sequel to her earlier book, White Lies. Krentz has done some great work with the engaging characters - by balancing their "gifts" with their normal lives. And it is great to have a lead male character who is a hero - but doesn't take himself so seriously. A great read. Looking forward to more in the series.

Witchy Business

Witchy Business is a collection of short stories by Julie Leto, Rhonda Nelson and Mia Zachary. From the title, you can tell that the book does feature paranormal characters. The stories are centered around the fictional Sedona Rehab Center for the Magically Challenged. It is a school for witches to attend, if they have not come into their powers. But the reason they do not have their "gifts" has to do with love. They have either "denied love, never known love, or abused love." And then comes the rest of the story...

All three stories are fun, and the premise makes the stories connect. Perfect for a short burst of romance. A frothy good time.