Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language



Tensions between the fae and humans are coming to a head. And when coyote shapeshifter Mercy and her Alpha werewolf mate, Adam, are called upon to stop a rampaging troll, they find themselves with something that could be used to make the fae back down and forestall out-and-out war: a human child stolen long ago by the fae.

Nine books into this series and I'm not even a little bit tired of it. I took a break from it for a while because I was reading so many other things, but I'm glad to be back. The Fae are up to no good as usual here, and we get a new character that is interesting, a human boy who has the ability to control fire...well most of the time. Sometimes the fire pops up unexpectedly which results in some damage to Mercy and Adam's home. But it's no big deal because the wolves and the Fae do even worse to it! I need to point out how very happy I am that several things that Adam's ex-wife Christie picked out get completely demolished. If my husband had an ex I could never live in a house that he had built and shared with her. I don't know how Mercy does it. Christie makes an appearance in this book, and yet again is her annoying self. Thankfully it was brief.

Other things that I loved about this book were:

-The walking stick. I love how it keeps finding its way back to Mercy and how it pops up whenever she needs it, even if she doesn't realize she does.

-Baba Yaga. What a hoot!

-Sherwood Post, and how he got his name. I really want to know more about him.

-The Gray Court. I liked that we dig deeper into the Fae and the inner workings of the Gray Court.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series and getting caught up for the new release coming in May.

Already Gone by Bridget E. Baker

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery, Contemporary Fiction
Content: Clean



Lacy Shelton and her sister Hope couldn't be more different, despite being less than a year apart in age. Lacy is captain of the debate team, poised to be Valedictorian of the high school and waiting for an admission letter from Yale any day. Hope is captain of the swim team, but will be happy if she gets into community college.

Hope has taken everything Lacy ever wanted, from pacifiers to high heels. But Lacy won't let that happen again, not this time. She won't let Hope take the new guy in school, and she sure as heck won’t let Hope ruin her chances with Yale. Until a shocking death changes all of Lacy's plans.

Alternating between Lacy's and Hope's points of view, Already Gone pieces together a tense puzzle of sisterhood, betrayal, mistakes, and ultimately forgiving someone who can be gone in a blink.

Bridget E. Baker is fast becoming a favorite author of mine. After reading her YA post-apocalyptic trilogy and her cute Christmas romance novel for adults and enjoying those I didn't hesitate to try this book. This is another YA novel, but this time around it's a mystery/suspense/contemporary fiction type story. One thing that really stands out to me is how versatile this author is. She does a great job with each of these genres.

I'll say right off that this story is a slow build and the mystery and the suspense are very mild. You're just reading both Lacy and Hope's accounts of past events and waiting to find out what went down to cause Lacy to be in a court-mandated psychiatrist's office. The details are very engrossing despite the slow burn of the story. I'll admit I was expecting a lot of danger and ominous events, but somehow this book still did not disappoint me. Despite the lack of any real danger or suspense, the story pretty much grabbed me right from the beginning and I couldn't put it down. That's saying a lot for a book about teens in high school! I thought I was done reading those types of stories, but I'm not sorry I read this one.

There was a twist that I did not see coming as well and that made the reading experience even better. There are quite a few themes touched on in this book, but I don't want to spoil the book so I won't talk about them here. This is a well thought out story about two sisters at odds, who also love each other, and in the end this ends up being a somewhat tragic but very sweet story. I highly recommend if you like contemporary teen fiction.

Thanks to the author for providing me with an advanced copy of this book for review.

December 2018 Book Club: Theft of Swords

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language


Update 1/6/2019: Reread for book club.

They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

I was thrilled that my book club picked this to read for January. This omnibus contains the first two books that started the Riyria Revelations. It has become one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. Royce and Hadrian are always entertaining and it was nice to revisit Theft of Swords after six and a half years. Has it really been that long since I first read this? It doesn't seem like it. This series spawned two prequel series, The Riyiria Chronicles and Legends of the First Empire, both of which I love just as much as this one, and a third one is in the works as well. I highly recommend if you enjoy traditional fantasy.

Original review 6/23/2012:

I received Theft of Swords from a Goodreads first-reads giveaway. I very much enjoyed it. I liked that it was a traditional epic type fantasy, but was still a fun easy read. The characters were all very engaging and I look forward to meeting them again in the sequels.

East by Edith Pattou

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Content: Strong Language



Rose has always been different.

Since the day she was born, it was clear she had a special fate. Her superstitious mother keeps the unusual circumstances of Rose's birth a secret, hoping to prevent her adventurous daughter from leaving home... but she can't suppress Rose's true nature forever.

So when an enormous white bear shows up one cold autumn evening and asks teenage Rose to come away with it--in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family--she readily agrees.



East is a retelling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a fairy tale similar to Beauty and the Beast. I had previously read Ice by Sarah Beth Durst and really liked it so I put this one on my list to read. It's been on my list for several years now and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. There are some differences in the two retellings. This one is a historical fantasy where Ice was set in modern day. I liked that this book has a historical setting. There were some things about this book that I liked better than Ice , but some things I liked less. The main character Rose was easy to like and so was the love interest, but I do feel like the book lacked in that we don't get enough chapters from his point of view, so we don't get to know him as well as we could. I also feel that the author could have used less telling and more showing at times, especially when it came to the interactions between Rose and the bear.

Rose's mother was a very superstitious woman who was definitely not in her right mind and she was hard to like at times. There were some inconsistencies in the way her character is written and some of the things she did didn't make a lot of sense, although I suppose you could chalk it up to her being kind of crazy. I did really like that the book had multiple points of view and I thought they were well done. I liked Rose's brother Neddy a lot, although it took a while to see why his point of view was needed in the story.

After reading this book I kept thinking about it and the more I thought about it the darker it seemed. There are some things that happen that are rather disturbing if you think about them.

**The following paragraph contains spoilers. If you don't want to read them then skip down to the next one.


The troll queen is rather like a pedophile that kidnaps a little boy. She wants to keep him for herself and marry him one day. Her father turns him into a bear so she can't have him, but eventually after over 100 years of being under the spell she does have him. She is sleeping in the same bed as him, and though nothing is written about it, it does seem as though she is having her way with him while he is in a drugged stupor because at one point she says he is hers body and soul. Yikes!


**End of spoilers.



Overall this was a good read. It is a great standalone, but I'm considering reading the sequel West, even though I don't really think it was necessary. I recommend this if you like fairytale retellings.

Bound - A Book of the Ancestor Short Story by Mark  Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language

 
This is a short story set in the world of The Book of the Ancestor (Red Sister). It should be read between book 2 and 3 of the trilogy. I don't have a lot to say about this other than it is a superb short story. There is so much packed into this little story that it feels like a longer one. The story features Nona, Ara, Kettle, Ruli, Jula, and Regol. I really enjoyed that it featured Regol, one of my favorite supporting characters from the series. This is a must read if you are a fan of the series.

Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language


 
For centuries, the Others and humans have lived side by side in uneasy peace. But when humankind oversteps its bounds, the Others will have to decide how much humanity they’re willing to tolerate—both within themselves and within their community...

This was a good addition to the series. I liked the progress that was made, but there were also some really slow parts where not a lot was really happening. That isn't unusual for this series though as each book has been like this. I think it's why I've been able to take a long break between books, but the story is good enough that I've still never lost interest.

One thing I really like about this series is how the shape shifters are more animal than human. They are not originally either shape, but the first shape they take is animal before they learn to turn human. It just makes the series feel unique compared to a lot of other urban fantasies I've read with shape shifters. There is quite a bit of comic relief involved with the shape shifters trying to understand the humans and that kept me laughing throughout the book. In my opinion a good urban fantasy needs some humor to balance out the dark parts.

In some ways it felt like this should have been the last book in the series, but there is still one more. I'm hoping for some relationship type resolutions in the last book. It will be interesting to see what happens in the end since there is a follow up series to this one. I'm interested in seeing how they're tied in together.

I hope you all had a very lovely holiday! I'm behind on my reviews because of the holidays, but now that they are over I'll be catching up and posting reviews this week of what I've been reading for the last three weeks. I'm also planning to make a "Best Books of 2018" post this week as well.