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[Book Review] Winter Lost

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Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson #14)  / Patricia Briggs Previously Reviewed  Dead Heat (Alpha and Omega #4) Wild Sign (Alpha & Omega #6)   Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson #9) Silence Fallen (Mercy Thompson #10) Storm Cursed (Mercy Thompson #11) Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson #12) " In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable. My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It’s a hard job, and it doesn’t leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself. But I’m not alone anymore. Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discove...
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[Book Review] The Olympian Affair

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The Olympian Affair (Cinder Spires #2)  / Jim Butcher  Previously Reviewed: The Aeronaut's Windlass It's been a long haul waiting for book two, and one that I didn't think was going to end.  In 2016, I described book one as an "air-ship filled rollicking adventure that brings to mind a mash-up of Shakespeare and The Princess Bride.  We have heroics, tempers, swashbuckling, dastardly villains, battles of wits, revenge, and maybe a little true love on the side.  This tome drops you into the story from page one and seems much shorter than its 750 pages." So where are we in 2023? Before reading this, I strongly advise you reread book one.  The cast is large,  the book thick, and the two main warring governments are Spire Albion and Spire Aurora , so if you're like me and names blend together, remind yourself of who everyone is and the stage that has been set. The Olympian Affair  is a story of the maneuvering and politics after the war has started but...
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[Book Review] Battle of the Linguist Mages

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Battle of the Linguist Mages   / Scotto Moore The description of this book caught my attention immediately , and a cover blurb from one of my favorite authors?  Sign me up! The book isn't quite what is promised, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it has so much potential.  It's like how Ready Player One  reads a lot different in a post Gamer Gate environment.  (Also, to be fair, the description I first read when looking through review copies is different than what is up  now.) Now, don't get me wrong, the premise is phenomenal.  I love a good SF that takes seeds of the here and now and goes "what if?"  It looks at where VR gaming is now, where streaming and MMOs are now, the balance between real life skills and game controls, and launches into a believable continuation.  Then we get a little seasoning of magic and more.  It made me laugh and has some neat ideas that it develops. But writing and tone wise, it feel...
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[Book Review] When Sorrows Come

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When Sorrows Come (October Daye #15)  / Seanan McGuire Previously reviewed: Rosemary and Rue Once Broken Faith The Brightest Fell Night and Silence The Unkindest Tide A Killing Frost After... we'll kindly say many books of dodging the inevitable, Toby's finally getting married.  In her defense, at the start of the book even she did not know the date chosen for the event.  There's a little too much significance in this marriage to allow for a simple document signing in front of the local Justice of the Peace.  A marriage between a member of the Divided Courts and a King of Cats, and of course Toby has been anything but "just" a changeling for some time now.  A hero of the realm, daughter of a First Born, king-breaker, kingdom maker, finder of lost things, and, most importantly, one of the few members of Fairie that understands crime scene investigation and procedure. This is  October Daye, of course something is going to go Horribly Wrong, likely involving b...
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[Book Review] Midnight, Water City

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  Midnight, Water City  / Chris Mckinney The world we live in has been changing alarmingly, with record breaking temperatures, forest fires, storms, flooding, and landslides, while billionaires play compete with each other in a space race.  Midnight, Water City  gives us a future that's not so far fetched, imagining how the world may be future reshaped and going from there.  The apocalypse has happened, the land poisoned, the seas rose, and humanity endured and adapted, building down into the depths of the sea. The story follows a man who for years protected the woman who saved the world from an extinction level meteor event.  The years have not been kind, years lengthened through advances in medicine and science, more years to make mistakes. Year 2142: Earth is forty years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. Bu...
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[Book Review] You Sexy Thing

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You Sexy Thing  / Cat Rambo The teaser hooked me with "Great British Bake Off meets Farscape" The story took a little bit longer, meandering in it's comfortable little setting. Then, as things are wont to do, everything went utterly wrong.  And that  my friends is when things started getting really interesting.  Rambo lulls you into complacency even as our intrepid heroes gear up for the biggest challenge of their culinary careers, and then pulls the rug out from under everything and sends the plot careening sideways into adventure and strife from most unexpected corners.  Amidst all of this, the characters unfold, giving the reader emotional stakes in the outcome. A delightful journey, all and all. Advance Reader Copy courtesy of  Macmillan-Tor/Forge in exchange for an honest review; changes may exist between galley and the final edition.
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[Book Review] TERRIBLE FALL OF ANGELS

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A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1) / Laurell K. Hamilton Confession - as much as I read large amounts of urban fantasy, particularly those with some sort of Investigator main character, I haven't really gotten into Hamilton's earlier works.  I gave Anita  the college try, working through a handful of books, but while I respected her work I never grew invested in the series.   But, Guilty Pleasures  came out in 1993.  Thirty years is a long time for someone to hone and refine their craft, and Hamilton's body of work and impact on the genre speaks volumes to her skill.  So a brand new series made me sit up and pay attention.  I wanted to see where this went, and I was not let down in the slightest.  Laurell K. Hamilton also took some time to answer some questions about the series, themes, setting, and horror! A Terrible Fall of Angels gives us a new setting, one where faith and belief can shape your magic, one where children can be...
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