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 This is book four of the Ranger’s Apprentice series and titled The Battle for Skandia in North America.
Having just barely recovered from his dependence on mind-numbing drugs thanks to Skandian slave drivers, ranger’s apprentice Will is convalescing in an isolated cottage with Evanlyn, the Araluen princess in disguise. They are waiting for the thaw to complete their escape to Araluen. When Evanlyn goes to find food and never returns, Will forces himself to follow her. Meanwhile, Halt and Horace are still searching for Will and Evanlyn. On their search they find suspicious signs of Temujai activity and realize that the whole of Skandia is in danger.
Like the rest in the series, this book is a lot of fun, and perhaps more so than the others. The characters have developed enough that they have much more emotional pull on both readers and each other. The relationship between Will and Evanlyn, for example, has really changed quite a bit from the beginning and continues to do so over the course of the book. I’ve found that all the characters have grown in believable ways and I feel a lot of sympathy towards them. They work best all together and I was very pleased to see that happen in this book.
The plot is, as usual, fast moving and exciting, if a little predictable. Just the first chapter is enough to start building the suspense and getting the book on a roll. I read this for the Read-a-Thon and it was perfect. It is very easy to sit and read though and I suspect would hold the attention of more reluctant readers, too.
I also thought the value of cooperation and learning from other people was really emphasized in this book. Obviously, this is still YA, but I think it’s better to show Skandians learning from Araluens after all this time rather than having them retain hostility. I really liked how diplomacy worked in this novel; the relations between the nations are developing just like those between characters.
So far, I have really enjoyed this series. I like the plots, I really like the characters, and overall I think they’re a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see where the series goes next.
Buy this book on Amazon .
 Courtesy of Amazon :
All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly : Sookie Stackhouse is in trouble again! Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn’t enjoy it). The point is: they saved her life. So when one of the bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges – and soon Sookie’s in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She’s supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that’s easier said than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly . . .
I really enjoyed Dead Until Dark and not surprisingly, enjoyed this installment in the series even more. The plot is a little more exciting, especially when it comes to danger to Sookie, the characters get fleshed out a little bit more, and overall it was a ton of fun to get back into Sookie’s world. I also particularly enjoyed that she has doubts about her relationship. Bill is a vampire and does some fairly inexcusable things because of that, but it seemed more like a real-life relationship to me because they have dealbreakers. They also love each other, though, and they have an interesting dynamic together. I have to say that I’m very curious as to whether they’ll stay together throughout the rest of the series, or even whether I really want them to. I’m much more attached to Sookie than I am to Bill, so I think a similarly dynamic character could spark some interesting tension. Not Eric, though.
I really like this series. I’m looking forward to the next, and as of right now, if someone wants urban fantasy, I know what to recommend.
 This review/opinion post is probably going to be dripping with spoilers, so if you are considering reading this series, you may not want to read it.
Bella has agreed to marry Edward at long last so that he can turn her into a vampire and they can spend eternity together. An unexpected arrival on their honeymoon and a bit of vampire history leaves Bella and her family in grave danger to which they have little recourse beyond Bella’s new powers and vampire friends from all over the globe.
I think we’ve all heard how ridiculous this book is. I had it thoroughly spoiled for me so I knew exactly what was coming, and it wasn’t really less crazy because of that. To be honest, it feels like an entirely different series. Bella-as-vampire is a far cry from Bella-as-human although it was SO NICE when she stopped feeling inferior and actually grew a spine. It’s a shame it took her amazing vampire powers to get there, though. Switching the narrator over to Jacob was not even as nice as I would have expected given that he is far and away my favorite character in this series. Instead, we get him complaining, too. I know books need conflict, but honestly, he complains so much about Bella that it just drove me up the wall. So much whining could have been cut out of this book and it wouldn’t have suffered at all, especially given after Renesmee’s birth (disgusting scene, by the way, and not only does she have this ridiculous name but her nickname is Nessie!) he completely switches focus and it’s like he never cared for Bella at all. I don’t like the whole imprinting concept at all, it seems like a way to cop out of more actual love story.
It also particularly irritated me that after all the worrying about Bella turning into a vampire, she’s just absolutely perfect at it. I guess she had to be good at something, but after the complaining and the stress, it turns out to be nothing. So many words are wasted worrying and lamenting over nothing in this book.
I would also like to know how anyone could not notice that their partner was chewing on the bed while they were having sex.
I did like the wedding scene, though. I don’t really think anyone should get married so young after such a short acquaintance, particularly given that Bella didn’t even really want to get married, but wedding scenes always get me, maybe because my own is happening so soon.
So, I guess that’s the end of the Twilight series for now. It’s a shame the conclusion wasn’t, well, better. I have to admit that I spent most of this book sighing over how ridiculous many of the plot developments were.
Buy Breaking Dawn on Amazon.
 Ever since she was nine years old and her father died, Josey Cirrini has been trying to make up for her awful childhood by essentially waiting on her mother hand and foot. Josey does not have a life outside of the house; she doesn’t have any friends and everyone remembers her for the devious deeds she performed as a small girl, like kicking shins and stealing chocolate cake, even though her family should be the foremost in the community. Her life changes when Della Lee appears in her closet, on the run from a destructive relationship and looking for a place to hide. Not only does Della Lee encourage Josey out of her shell, but she guides her to Chloe, who becomes Josey’s friend and who desperately needs a friend herself to help her through the discovery that her long-time boyfriend has cheated on her, and closer to Adam, the mailman on whom Josey has had a crush for the past three years.
There is almost too much sugar in this book for words. I liked it, but it’s very, very sweet and cute and it’s a book you really need to be in the mood for. Everyone gets what they want even when they don’t know they want it, except for the characters who are just bad and you know it. The best part was easily watching Josey come into her own and watching Adam fall for her (it’s obvious that he’s going to – just couldn’t happen any other way in this kind of book) since she’s been so stifled for so many years.
I enjoyed the little magic edge in this book, just like in Allen’s other book, Garden Spells. In this one, books follow Chloe around, and whenever she and her boyfriend kiss, water boils in the coffeepot, which I thought was cute. There are a couple of other magical happenings, but they are spoilery. There is also an appreciation for books in this. At one point, Chloe is viewing a house and discovers that there is a closet full of books. The owner tells her the realtor had him put them away because books are clutter, and both characters agree (as do I of course) that books could never be clutter.
This isn’t really a new story. It doesn’t do anything original. It’s just a cute, quick read, and if you’re in the mood for something sweet, The Sugar Queen may be the book for you.
 Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in a small bar in Louisiana. She keeps to herself because of her disability. That is, she can read thoughts, and being close to people makes her uncomfortable, especially men. One night, a vampire named Bill walks into her bar, and she realizes that she can’t hear him. Not only that, but he’s good-looking and interested in her. Unfortunately, a string of murders has plagued her small town lately, and it looks like a vampire did it. Bill’s under suspicion and Sookie’s life is in danger; can they figure out who did it before their lives are torn apart?
This was a fantastic, fun little book. Sookie is already an interesting character, and having a vampire named Bill who fought in the Civil War just adds potential for a lot of great background. It seems fairly natural when they get together and stay together, although some of Bill’s vampire habits creep me out. They clearly don’t creep Sookie out as much as me, though. I like that even though she’s a blond, busty barmaid (as she says) she’s still intelligent.
This is a mystery, but I think setting the background for the series was more important. We meet a number of vampires and get a feel for their world, both good and bad, like how they got to be recognized, how apparently they have a “virus”, and even whether or not they can procreate. We get acquainted with Sookie and her supporting cast. As it turns out, the murderer was actually someone who bugged me throughout the book; I hadn’t guessed, but I was pleased, and glad that person will probably not be turning up again. The mystery and the murders were important, but it didn’t frustrate me as mysteries have in the past. I didn’t feel like I was supposed to guess, I could just enjoy the story and wonder who did it.
I also enjoyed the southern feel that this book has. In particular, I appreciated that the dialogue wasn’t written in an atrocious approximation of regional accent but gave me the impression that the characters had particular accents through word choice and behavior. It feels like how I think Louisiana should feel but without irritating me in any way. I liked that a lot.
I would definitely recommend this book to someone looking for a fun read with supernatural elements. I’m very much looking forward to the next in the series and once again glad that I “discovered” urban fantasy. I’ve been missing out on a lot of fun!
Buy Dead Until Dark on Amazon.
 Again, this is not really a review, more my thoughts on this installment of the series!
Edward’s back in her life and Bella couldn’t be happier, but she still cares for Jacob Black, the werewolf who has become her best friend. The animosity between Edward and Jacob means that Bella struggles to keep her two worlds apart. Even worse, someone is committing murder after murder in Seattle, and Bella, the Cullens, and the Quileutes have reason to think that they’re after Bella. In the midst of trying to stay safe and protect all those she cares about, Bella realizes that she may have to make a choice with which she isn’t at all comfortable.
I do actually think this installment of the series may be the best so far. (It’s later ruined by Breaking Dawn, but we’ll leave that review for next week.) Edward has developed something of a personality, which makes me pleased that he’s not just a God-like perfect creature, although we still hear about his beauty nearly every page he’s on. He’s still very controlling, though, and that I didn’t appreciate. Bella doesn’t seem to care, but he regularly thwarts her will and convinces her to do what he likes, like when he forbids her to see Jacob and has Alice actually kidnap her to prevent that from happening. I can’t even tell you what I’d do if Keith tried to stop me from seeing someone who wasn’t harmful to me at all. The scene where he forces Bella to visit her mother on a particular weekend and worse, completely overrides her father’s objection springs to mind. What Stephenie Meyer shows us and tells us are two entirely different things.
My favorite is still Jacob. I can’t help it. If I was an obsessed teenager, I’d be wearing a “Team Jacob” t-shirt. He’s so much more interesting than Edward. He seems to actually care for Bella rather than spout endless platitudes about eternal love; we don’t need to hear his feelings so often because he shows them. What a novelty! He’s also more fun, and Bella is more fun around him. She’s better when she’s not passing out from kisses or thinking about how unworthy she is, although she does get annoying by constantly worrying at the hurt she’s causing Jacob. I wanted to kick her. If she felt so bad, she should have cut off the friendship and let him recover.
This is still the best book in the series, though. It felt smoother, and though the characters annoyed me, I felt that they were gaining more dimensions, even if they weren’t dimensions I liked. The vampire past was interesting, too, because I like world-building even if the author likes to break conventions. I’m still not sure I’ll go around recommending this series – not because anyone needs me to anyway – but I am enjoying them in a superficial sort of way, at least when I don’t want to smack Bella.
Buy Eclipse on Amazon.
 Bella Swan is still deliriously happy to be with Edward Cullen, the love of her life who just happens to be a vampire. It’s Bella’s eighteenth birthday, but it reminds her that she is growing older while Edward remains a teenager. Regardless, he wants to celebrate and whisks her off to the Cullen household for a party. At the party, Bella falls and tears her arm open, bleeding everywhere and exposing her vulnerability to the world as the vampires can hardly keep themselves away. Convinced he’s doing the right thing, the family, including Edward, leave Bella behind. This devastating separation drives Bella closer to Jacob, who has a secret of his own, and results in misunderstandings and drama as the strength of Bella, Edward, and their relationship is pushed to the limit.
This doesn’t really need a review, as there are reviews scattered across the entire internet, so this is more a collection of thoughts than a proper review.
Various other bloggers told me I would and in fact I did like this book better because of Edward’s absence. Bella whined, but at least I didn’t have to hear about how perfect he was for pages on end. I like Jacob much better than Edward. He seems more like a real person. He is, of course, in love with Bella and he’s gorgeous, but I prefer his earnest, cheerful personality. I know how the series ends, but I’d have firmly declared myself for “Team Jacob” if I was 10 years younger and paid attention to the fuss surrounding the release of Breaking Dawn. In fact, I liked this book all around better than Twilight. Yeah, their relationship is more or the less full of the same problems that bugged me the first time, but I think I’m beginning to “get” why teenage girls are so enthralled with Edward. He really will do anything for Bella and it probably is his devotion that teenagers want. I don’t think I’d want a boyfriend who would kill himself if I died, but at 13, I’m sure I would have thought it terribly romantic.
I’m a little annoyed with Bella’s self-deprecating attitude though; it seems worse here. She values herself based on the attention that others give her. She only recovers from her depression when she has a new admirer in Jacob. I think this series would have been stronger had Bella come into her own and not just followed the whims of her vampire boyfriend or werewolf best friend. That said, I haven’t finished the series, so maybe she does, at least a little. I’ll find out as I plan on continuing. I know what happens, but these books are fun, even with their irritating edges. I still think I’d have to talk to any children of mine about the messages this series is conveying, but I don’t have to worry about that and can focus more on the enjoyable factor.
Buy New Moon on Amazon.
 Thursday Next retreats into the Well of Lost Plots to avoid getting into more trouble with Goliath and the Chronoguard in the real world. With a baby on the way and her husband Landen erased from everyone’s memory but hers, she wants to stay safe, and the best way to do that is to take up residence in a failing detective novel. Unfortunately, trouble finds Thursday even when she’s hiding, as she must battle the new book upgrade, save the novel she has moved into, and figure out why Jurisfiction agents are being murdered.
As with the other books I’ve read by Jasper Fforde, this one is a treat. My favorite part is unquestionably the many literary references sprinkled throughout the text. We visit Alice In Wonderland, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights, and several other literary destinations as well as hints. For example, Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows has a never-ending battle with Miss Haversham to see who can drive the fastest. During a meeting, everyone present remarks constantly that they are waiting for Godot. Humpty Dumpty and his nursery rhyme cohorts need to be satisfied; their stories aren’t always written down and they want equal rights with book characters. I think it’s those sneaky hints and literary connections that make these books great.
I did wonder a little bit why Thursday wasn’t gung ho about finding Landen. She has to battle her own memories to keep him alive and that certainly means a lot to her, but she uses the excuse of the baby to stop going out into the real world. Of course, she’s in plenty of danger in the Well of Lost Plots, too, but I guess gigantic monsters aren’t as scary as the Goliath corporation. You could also say that one is expected and one is not, but, well, I’m nitpicky. 
Anyway, after reading this I feel I have definitely gotten back into the Thursday Next groove. This was a library book and I actually own book 4, but it’s at my parents’. So it’ll be at least July or so until I can read the next one, but I’m really looking forward to it.
The Well of Lost Plots is available from Amazon and Amazon UK.
 It all starts when Sara Kendell finds a little pouch full of odd small items in the stockroom of her antiques shop. Sara, the quirky daughter of a wealthy family, has no interest in her inheritance and instead lives with her uncle Jamie and a various crew of outcasts in large, mystical Tamson house. Kieran Foy arrives in Ottawa having lost tabs on his mentor in the Way, Tom, only to discover the police are after him thanks to this very connection. When Sara and Kieran meet, they are thrown into a new world, into a conflict they don’t fully understand, but they must learn quickly as their friends are in danger.
Before this, I’d only read one book by Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl, which I enjoyed a lot. I knew this one wasn’t set in the same universe but was reputed to be very good and since I was in the mood for fantasy, I thought it might be a perfect fit. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good and I liked it.
This book is fairly long, so I was glad it didn’t take much time to get going. This seems like another varient of the urban fantasy genre, but it is indeed more magical than the current offerings, particularly when two of the main characters are sent back in time. The magic system was interesting and seemed to be based from a combination of Native American and Welsh myth, at least in the book’s world. I managed to read more than half of it on a very stressful set of flights, so the fact that it managed to keep my attention during all that is a definite stroke in its favor.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the characters, though. The two main ones, Kieran and Sara, fall in love with minor characters over the course of the book, but I felt both affairs were too sudden to be believable. I know their lives were under threat and people feel more strongly during those times, but I had a hard time buying it. I’m not sure why I didn’t care about any of them, I just know that I didn’t and it lessened the book for me.
In the end, I liked it but I didn’t love it, so I’m not sure if I would recommend it. I’ll probably still read the sequel, Spiritwalk, which was a free e-book on tor.com, but I think for now I will stick with reading more Newford stories.
Buy Moonheart on Amazon.
 From the back cover:
“Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station – and a werewolf in the closet. Sick of lame song requests, she accidentally starts ‘The Midnight Hour’, a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged.
After desperate vampires, werewolves, and witches across the country begin calling in to share their woes, her new show is a raging success. But it’s Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew …”
This is the first in the Kitty Norville series of urban fantasy books. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it. I wouldn’t consider urban fantasy to be my genre exactly, but I really enjoy fantasy in general and thought I’d give them a shot. I was really pleased that I enjoyed this book so much. A great deal of it is set-up for the rest of the series. In the beginning, Kitty is very submissive and the “cub” of her pack. She does a lot of cowering around Carl, the alpha male. I was a little disturbed to realize that this also included sleeping with him whenever he wanted, but it makes sense if half of the time the werewolves think in a wolf mentality and luckily, this isn’t a focus of the book at all.
It made me feel uncomfortable to have such a weak heroine at first. I was worried that I wouldn’t like Kitty and it would be difficult to fully enjoy books about a werewolf I didn’t even like. Fairly quickly, though, with the help of her radio show, Kitty starts to discover her own identity and better link her werewolf and human sides. She comes into her own, and that’s really what this book is about. This book centers on learning about the world, getting acquainted with Kitty and her supporting crew, and setting up future conflicts.
The plot was not as interesting and after the radio show got started, I wondered where it was going for about a hundred pages. There are a few murders going on and it gets exciting towards the end, but I definitely feel that this was set-up, although executed particularly well. In this case, since I know the series goes on for five more books and probably more, I don’t mind at all, particularly since I enjoyed the book and didn’t want to put it down. I’m thinking about getting more into this urban fantasy genre, starting now with the rest of the Kitty Norville books.
Buy Kitty and the Midnight Hour on Amazon.
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