On the Prowl

On the Prowl, 4 short stories by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilkes, Karen Chance & Sunny (whoever that is...)

Short Story #1: Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs

I started this during my lunch hour and could not put it down! There is something about the story of Charles and Anna that I really enjoyed and I picked it up again as soon as I was off work and finished it really very quickly and wanted more. I was happy to see that she has followed up with a book titled "Cry Wolf." I'll be checking that out of the library soon.

Anna has been living in Chicago as a werewolf for the past three years when she was changed against her will or knowledge of what was to come. Charles is a dominant alpha male werewolf and the son and second of the Marrok - the leader of all the alphas. He is sent to Chicago after Anna warned the Marrok about the murder of a boy by the alpha in her pack. Upon arriving in Chicago Charles immediately realizes that Anna is an Omega, a rare wolf that has the ability to calm those around her. Anna doesn't believe him at first since she is considered submissive (and therefore useless) in her own pack. That Anna was changed against her will and then beaten into the appearance of submission absolutely pisses Charles off and he sets out to find out what is wrong with Anna's pack.

It is a swift plot but sets the characters and scene for a much wider scale of possible events. And I liked Anna as a character quite a bit. Charles I could take or leave since most (romantic) male leads are alpha males anyhow. It is Anna that sets this plot apart.

Short Story #2: Inhuman by Eileen Wilkes

This was not such a great story from my point-of-view. There was so much potential! The otherworldly characters and friendship and love despite the differences are an excellent foundation for a story. It just didn't follow through or came out to be too trite. There was danger, sort of, in the creature that took on human form but even that was tamed. All in all the tale seemed so watered down it was hardly worth it...

Short Story #3: Buying Trouble by Karen Chance

I've now read Karen Chance quite a bit and like much of her Cassandra Palmer series. That series is so swift and complicated that the swift but uncomplex plot of "Buying Trouble" was a tad jarring. It does touch on the Cassie Palmer series very briefly but the plot is mostly just standalone. Our heroine in this novel is a 'null' human - one that by her very presence blocks magic. Nulls can be very powerful weapons in the magical world and Claire has narrowly avoided being sold by her family (her real father is unknown) by escaping with a elfin hottie. The amusing thing is that she can't seem to keep herself away from him despite all the trouble they get into once they land in Faerie (I think I sense a theme here, Ms. Chance...). After a rather crucial interlude (*coughcough*) Claire is reborn into her second self - a dragon.

Short Story #4: Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny

By far the worst short story in the anthology the story seems to be a work of fan fiction based off of someone else's work but poorly chopped together and badly explained overall. There is also quite a bit of unnecessary sex. I remember picking up the book and wondering "Who the heck is Sunny?" and find that now that I've read a short story of hers I really don't care to know.

Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz

Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz

Masquerade is the sequel to Melissa de la Cruz's Blue Bloods.

Masquerade picks up a few weeks after Blue Bloods ends with Schulyer and Oliver searching Venice for Schulyer's grandfather, Lawrence Van Alan. She does find him and events move more quickly once he enters the picture.

I don't want to give away too much of it, but Mimi gets accused of being the harborer of the Silver Bloods, and a Silver Blood herself after she was found in the possession of dark magic.

Schulyer ends up saving her because as the daughter of Gabrielle, she is the only one of the Blue Bloods who can taste the blood of other vampires without succumbing to the addiction and memory overload that can cause madness.

The action is far from being over - they managed to find out about one Silver Blood and the rest of Council knows about the danger but nothing else has happened to really put a stop to them and they are all in danger until then...

The action moves along with a nice pace and the title sums the book up nicely. There is an actual masquerade ball but the title seems to really bring out the idea of not knowing who is on which side of the 'fight'. Sometimes it even seems like the characters themselves don't know which side they are on.

It's well worth reading but I think I'd have absolutely confused if I had not read the first book first. This is not a series you can just pick up on from the middle.

Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" by Debbie Viguié

Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" by Debbie Viguié

This is one of my favorites from the 'Once Upon a Time' series. I've always loved the story of the sacrifice of the Little Mermaid but in this retelling the main character is not the one that must sacrifice something to the Sea Witch.

Peal was discovered by a fisherman in the ocean on the day of a huge storm. She was about four years old, naked as a bluejay and clutching a large, dark pearl. The fisherman and his wife raised her like their own for they had been praying for a child. They told the other villagers that she was family that had been orphaned in a village that had been harder hit by the storm.

Many years later Pearl is all grown up and probably about 17. She still has long, ungainly legs pale translucent skin, silvery hair and won't eat fish. She stares and stares at the sea but never goes in because she has nightmares about a pair of dark eyes watching her in the water and the memory of words that the ocean would kill her. Pearl's best friend is James and he just happens to be a prince. They're tied together as friends because neither treat the other differently despite their rather obvious differences. They really care for each other and so when the topic of marriage comes up from both their families they immediately turn to the other to bail them out. On the day that James would have proposed, their boat sprang a leak and James nearly died but a mermaid brought him to shore while her brother (a merman) watched over Pearl as she swam in to shore.

The merman, Kale, recognizes Pearl as Adriana, a mermaid princess. But Pearl remembers nothing about being a mermaid and Kale doesn't want to risk frightening her off because on top of everything else he had been betrothed to her. Faye, his mermaid sister, falls immediately in love with James despite knowing nothing about him. They help the humans to the land and both head to the Sea Witch who can turn them human. From Faye she takes her voice and strikes a bargain that she must convince the prince to fall in love with her within seven days or lose her life. From Kale she strikes the same bargain but takes his eyes instead of his voice.

Both have quite a handicap to overcome and there is drama on land involving James and a distant cousin that wants the throne. Only by knowing herself and recognizing love will Pearl be able to make everything turn out all right in the end. And of course she does so both of the little mermaids turn out to have a happily ever after but Pearl returns to the sea and Faye remains on land with James.

The Storyteller's Daughter: A Retelling of "The Arabian Nights" by Cameron Dokey

The Storyteller's Daughter: A Retelling of "The Arabian Nights" by Cameron Dokey

This is one of my favorites of the 'Once Upon a Time' series but one of the least imaginative colors. They could have done all kinds of cool things with the Arabic wear and veils and many different fabrics. As it is the poor half-woman on the cover has diamonds patterned over her skin and a bland looking, oddly patterned dress...

However, this is one of my favorites probably because of the inherent magic. Shahrazad is the daughter of the vizier to the king and Maju, a storyteller from a faraway land. Maju is one of great beauty and one of the greatest storytellers but is blind. By feeling cloth that comes out of her trunk she is able to decipher the story in the weave of the cloth. Once Maju died this gift to read the cloth (and also blindness) went to Shahrazad. The vizier remarried and his second wife also bore him a daughter but that wife died birthing the child.

Every good fairy tale must have a prince and so the story takes a turn to look at the two princes of the king that Shahrazad's father serves. Both sons married and both sons had their wives betray them (and nearly kill them). The eldest prince was cursed by his wife before she killed herself that he would never know peace until he knew the heart of the woman and that woman knew his heart as well. This tormented the prince so much that his heart turned to stone and he set forth an edict that he would take a new wife at the full moon so that he would not be without female company but would have her beheaded the next day so that she would not have time to betray him. No one wanted to give up their daughters but Shahrazad volunteered for the job. Her father and sister tried to dissuade Shahrazad but she had a plan in place that would hopefully give her the time needed to learn the prince's heart and him to knows hers as well. Each night she would read the cloth and tell the prince (and her little sister) part of the story within the cloth.

The plot is deceptively simple with a little bit of tricky politics but under it all is just a well-written love story.

Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" by Cameron Dokey

Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" by Cameron Dokey

This is not a normal story about Rapunzel. We know this within the first several pages of the book because the child named Rapunzel is bald and remains that way. So you know right off that this is no run-of-the-mill child unfortunate enough to get stuck in a tower for most of her life.

This Rapunzel starts out normally enough. Her mother had to have a certain variety of parsley/lettuce known as rapunzel and sent her husband next door to gather some. However, since their next door neighbor was a sorceress the devoted husband thought that he would have a better chance of getting the parsley if he stole it. This is where we know the story has gone awry because the sorceress is kind and allows the woman to have all the rapunzel she desired and in return, they must love their child no matter what because if they don't, the sorceress would take the child away.

The baby came out completely bald but the mother, so foolish about the rapunzel earlier, saw that the child would never be like herself (vain with beautiful, long, golden hair) and so rejected it. The husband/father was terribly sad at this because he would have loved his daughter no matter what and his wife's foolishness took the baby away from them. :(

So the sorceress raised Rapunzel (in a different town, of course) with love and eventually Rapunzel made some good friends despite her looking differently. The best friend she had was the tinker (Mr. Jones) and his adopted son Harry. When she turned sixteen a sickness in a nearby town caused Rapunzel and the sorceress to move out of the area before the villagers came with pitchforks for the sorceress. They traveled with Mr. Jones and Harry to a magicked tower where the sorceress' daughter by blood was held hostage. The two girls were of a similar age but not alike at all; opposites in most ways. For where Rapunzel was bald, the girl, Rue, had beautifully long golden hair that let them climb into the tower.

The day is saved (finally) when Rapunzel gives her name to Rue and Rue gives her heart to a passing prince. Of course Rapunzel (now nameless) had already given her heart to Harry. The girl formerly-known-as-Rapunzel took the new name of Susan. And Harry and Susan lived happily ever after. :)

This was not my favorite of the 'Once Upon a Time' series by a longshot but then I've never thought that the story of Rapunzel was terribly good either. Why did the mother HAVE TO HAVE the lettuce? I know pregnant women get cravings but geez, have some ice cream instead. It'd be more believable... And allowing people to climb up your hair just never seemed like a smart thing to me. She must have gotten sick of jokes like 'Well that's using your head!' The Rapunzel of fairy tales just never seemed like a smart or worthwhile character. She was a paper princess with not a lot of substance. It's a little bit sad but some of that carried over and into this story too. Rue wasn't a very fleshed out person and were hardly on a first name basis with many of the other characters. Parts of it dragged on while others happened so fast I wasn't sure what was going on anymore. I was truly confused about why Rapunzel had to give up her name.

I've got several more of this series to read so I'm hoping there are still a bunch of good ones.

The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld, 3) by Gena Showalter

This book is very much more of the same as the previous two books. Reyes holds within him the demon Pain and has been lusting after Danika Ford since book 1.

I had some major concerns for Danika as Reyes is a fairly violent and bloody person (not to mention messy... all that blood...) and he tends to taint the women he associates with his demon so that they too begin to crave pain. Unwilling to afflict this future on Danika, Reyes protects her from both Aeron and himself. Of course this only works for a period of time before Danika forces his hand.

However since Danika is the all seeing eye and basically a portal between heaven and hell the demon can't hurt her. It basically just goes to hell (lol) when she is with Reyes rendering her safe from the demon.

I just checked and there are not any other books published after this one so I'm not certain if she is still writing this series or not. The plot points set out certainly aren't finished by this book. Only two of the four godly objects have been found and so they haven't gotten Pandora's box. Paris did have a vision of Danika holding the box but that's obviously sometime in the future. If Ms. Showalter writes more I'm willing to read them.

Out of Power for the Last few days...

I'm adding this post at work because there's a generator there so I'll have to be really brief...

To review:
Thunderbird Falls - C.E. Murphy
Beauty Sleep - Cameron Dokey
Raintree: Haunted - Linda Winstead Jones
Nobody's Princess - Esther Friesner

Hope power will be back on soon... We've been without it for 4 days now (since Sunday).

The Night Dance: a Retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by Suzanne Weyn

The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn

I really enjoyed this fairy tale combination. I had always liked the tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses but always found them a bit lacking. Why does the father lock them up in their room every night? Why doesn't the father just separate the daughters into different rooms? Why does the father hire strangers to find out what his daughters are doing? Can't he watch over them himself? Why do the daughters feel compelled to go out dancing every night and ruin their slippers? Aren't they tired???

By mixing the fairytale with Arthurian legend Weyn has a way to answer most of those questions. The girl's mother is the Lady of the Lake and is captured and imprisoned by Morgan LaFaye. The girl's father, wild with grief at losing his wife builds a great wall around their home to keep his daughters from getting lost and never coming back in the same way. The youngest daughter, Rowena has inherited some of her mother's magical skill and is desperate to try to get out of the prison of her home. One day she stumbles into Bedivere, the last knight of the Round Table and the bearer of the legendary sword Excalibur. King Arthur entrusted Bedivere with the sword and the mission to return it to the Enchanted Lake and the lady that lives there. Bedivere and Rowena fall instantly in love.

The sisters are eager to escape in the same way Rowena did but their father discovered her exit route and blocked it off. Instead the girls escape into tunnels and caves under their home and discover a lake deep underground. Unbeknownst to them that lake is where their mother is imprisoned. In an effort to distract the girls, Morgan LaFaye weaves a spell that changes their nightclothes into fine ballgowns and for barges to take the girls to a magical island on the lake where they can eat, drink and dance all night long. When they come home in the morning their slippers are ruined and their father is upset at them have left without his knowledge and the fact that he has to foot the bill (pun intended) for their ruined footwear.

Rowena is upset that she can't get back to Bedivere and she suspects her mother is captive beneath the lake but each time she goes down to the caves she is drawn off in the barges and forgets about her intention to search the lake. Finally the girl's father calls for his infamous contest of wits to see which man can figure out how his daughters are getting out every night and in return win one of their hand's in marriage. Luckily Bedivere manages to snag the card that shows he is the suitor for the second night of the trial (or the book might have gone on for far too long) and is able to help set the Lady of the Lake free, return Excalibur to her and win fair lady Rowena's hand and heart.

It's a charming retelling even if it does have a few flaws. As some other reviewers have noted the character development is a little lacking - only two of the sisters have any real role to play and the others are basically about as animated as store manniquins. We don't really get to see much of anyone's reasoning for anything although much of it is implied. On the whole it's not as good as some of the other stories from Weyn but it is worth a quick read.

Water Song: a Retelling of "The Frog Prince" by Suzanne Weyn

Water Song: a Retelling of "The Frog Prince" by Suzanne Weyn

I have really begun to like the "Once upon a Time" series with it's interesting retellings of standard fairy tales in unconventional settings that I wouldn't have dreamed of. This is the third book I've read in the series and I continue to be impressed with the level of storytelling they provide.

This book felt much less like a fairytale than some of the others I have read so far. One would expect a story like the frog prince to be rife with magic and fairies and princes but the story of the frog prince is almost a gloss over the true story of the book.

Emma is a British aristocrat that got trapped in her mother's ancestral home in Belgium on the Western Front in World War I. Her mother died in a bombing and Emma is literally caught between the Germans and Allies as they battle it out to control the North Sea ports. An American soldier fighting for the British troops named Jack got badly injured in a chlorine gas attack and was able to make his way to Emma's home and down her well to save himself from the gas. As is, his skin is torn and broken and his eyes are burned and swollen into slits. He is weak from the effects of the gas and is saved by Emma who happened by the well and saw him in search of a locket (the gold ball) that she threw in anger.

Jack and Emma are not alike at all but common cause and experience bind them together to survive the insanity of war. Both go to extreme lengths to save each other (after Jack gets his strength back) and to pass information to the Allies and end up falling in love. The extra layer of story as the Frog Prince really didn't enhance the story too much but definitely gave things an extra flavor at times. The story worked well with Jack's background growing up in Louisiana and swimming in the Mississippi etc. I also enjoyed the subtle reference to Louis Armstrong and how the books that Jack and Emma read in captivity are ones that were popular then and we still enjoy reading today like Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. It gave the tale such a realistic background... as if fairy tales are everyday occurences and we just aren't looking at them correctly.

Raintree: Haunted by Linda Winstead Jones

Raintree: Haunted by Linda Winstead Jones

This is the second part of the Raintree family series. Gideon, younger brother to Dante is a cop with the ability to see and hear ghosts as well as control electrical fields.

Gideon is called upon to investigate the murder of his cousin's roommate and is saddled with a new partner, Hope Mallory. Hope is determined to learn something from Gideon's stellar record and prove to the big boys that a woman can do just as well or better.

Gideon tries to scare her away from him and off the case but both parties are too stubborn to give in. When it turns out that the intended target of the murder investigation was actually Gideon's cousin herself and that he was next in line to be murdered the partners step up to the plate to get it solved. Hope herself becomes a target as well since the murderess sees both what a distraction she is to Gideon and also how her death would harm him. The murderer is running out of time though since she must complete her family's dark plan before the Solstice.

Some other stuff happens and Gideon and Hope "find each other" and keep each other safe but the story is not quite completed. Hopefully the third book will tie it all in together. So far this has not been a great series despite my feelings about the individual authors. I guess I'll see how the third pans out.

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, 1) by Ilona Andrews

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, 1 by Ilona Andrews

This was a CONFUSING book. I've really started to get into the urban noir/paranormal drama scene but every so often it throws me for a loop. This was definitely one of those books.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary with affiliations at the local Order in Atlanta. When the Knight Diviner of the Order (a father figure named Greg) is found dead Kate promises herself that she'll find the killer and avenge Greg's death. Kate bumbles about a bit seeking information and pissing off a couple of suspects / allies before determining that the real enemy is a creature called a upir.

The upir is basically a beast that will copulate with anything in the hope of creating a male child that the upir will nourish with the offspring's mother. (Eew!) Only someone very strong will be able to bear the upir's child and it has set it's sight on Kate because of her strong magical background, which we don't know about because Kate won't talk about it. We do know that it has to do with who her father is and how strong that makes her blood. No normal weapon can kill the upir and so Kate is stuck trying to figure out how to kill the beast before it gets her. Kate does have an ally or two -- in particular the Beast Lord aka Curran. Curran is immensely strong and controls all of the shapeshifters in the Atlanta / Southern region. He can shift into a huge lion-like creature and helps take on the upir and a vampiress named Olathe. I like him as a foil for Kate and they fight and tick each other off at every chance they get.

I particularly liked the scene near the end where Kate was being offered a job over the phone and Curran was fixing her roof (that he broke earlier in the book) and Kate was told that she had been recommended by the Beast Lord. Kate breaks away from her phone conversation to yell at him about what he'd said to them and he replied that he had told them she was disciplined, a team player and was able to follow order - all things Kate doesn't do well at all. So she had to tell the person on the phone that the Beast Lord is a liar, that she doesn't exactly play well with others and that the Beast Lord can't hammer worth sh*t (because he's there on her roof trying to hammer down shingles).

Kate's audacity in the face of danger was really kind of impressive. I also enjoyed the part where she was with the Order's Crusader (Nick) and Curran about to bust into the upir's lair and she had to will herself to go in. She was scared and she knew it but wasn't willing to back down. Curran kissed her to piss her off and it brought back her anger and her courage. I'm sure there's more to come on that front in the next book.

Where it got really confusing was some of the wording about the upir -- at one point Kate figures out who it is and I thought she was able to contain him with a ward of bone and wood but then later she sees the guy she named on the street watching something (or so I thought)... and then later she captures something that must have been one of his minions but I thought she had said it WAS the upir. That whole section after she first figures out who the upir is really had me confused but most of it was clear by the end. I'll probably want to go back and do some careful rereading now that I know how it's supposed to go.

I think the next one should be worth reading since Kate has more "friends" now and a job all lined up. I can't wait to see how that goes...

Kiss of Crimson (The Midnight Breed, 2) by Lara Adrian

Kiss of Crimson (The Midnight Breed, 2) by Lara Adrian

Only in movies is the second installment worse than the first. In most of the novels I've read recently that have been serialized the best works have been second or third novels.

This held true for Kiss of Crimson. Book 1 got us started on all the backstory about the Breed and the war with the Rogues and set a very definite rough plot of where the series would be headed.

Kiss of Crimson started right up on the action even though it takes place a few months after Lucan and Gabrielle in Book 1. Dante is out patrolling when he stumbles into a Rogue that doesn't react to titanium the way they normally do. The Rogue fights like an animal and Dante has a hard time taking him out when several other Rogues show up at the scene and blow up the dock. Dante barely escapes into the river and crawls upshore badly injured. He pulls himself into a vetrinary clinic needing to feed and finds Tess Culver alone. He tries to convince her that she's safe and she doesn't put up much of a fight through the feeding but stabs him with a syringe once he's closed the wound on her neck and he's realized that she has the mark of a Breedmate. The syringe knocks him out for a few minutes -- long enough for Tess to call a friend who gets worried and calls the police. Dante isn't out for long and has to scrub her memories so that he'll have time to properly explain things to her later. Obviously a beautiful start to a wonderful relationship

Dante heads back to the compound thinking that there's no way his night could possibly get worse when an agent from the Darkhaven comes by with unexpected news about vanishing teenage vampires and a new drug on the club scene that causes Bloodlust in the teens that take it. Those teens eventually become Rogue which would allow for Lucan's brother Marek to practically manufacture Rogue soldiers for his cause. Agent Chase Sterling wants to help the Order stop whoever is dealing in this drug and bring back the missing teenagers and Lucan has assigned Dante to babysit him.

The plot continues to complicate when Dante can't stop thinking about Tess and shows up at an art show just to see her. Tess has the gift of healing (even among the Breed) although before she met Dante she had sworn never to use her "curse" again. She uses her gift to heal a dog that Dante brought to her (to get closer to her, sneaky guy) and sort of helps Dante to fight off the death visions he's been having all his life. Also through a little digging Dante finds out that one of Tess' best friends is not only the dealer of the drug Crimson but also the man who created and pharms the drug. Agent Chase Sterling also has his own agenda and is looking for his nephew among the missing drug users to impress his widowed sister-in-law.

Eventually Dante and Chase catch Tess' friend Ben (the drug dealer that Tess didn't really know about) but Chase lets him go and then Ben gets kidnapped by Marek's minions. Tess was walking by Ben's apartment and Rogues set upon her and nearly killed her with their feeding. Dante goes berserk and pretty much takes out all the Rogues present before deciding that only his blood can heal her. This would complete the Breedmate process something that Dante had been reluctant to do without explaining the ramifications to her or even asking her permission.

Tess did go a little crazy when she realized what had happened and left the compound in broad daylight. Dante is felled by the same death vision he's had all his life but he realizes that it is not HIS death he sees, but Tess' and Dante realizes he can't just let her go to face her possible death. So Dante goes out in broad daylight with Agent Chase and Niko to save her and gets badly burned in the process. It's after this that Tess realizes that no matter what Dante inherently is he still loves her.

The story is more complicated and dramatic than the first and even our heroine Tess seems to be a stronger character than Gabrielle ever was. Tess' whole history and her overcoming her demons automatically make her a more realistic and courageous woman.

I believe the next one has to do with Tegan and Elise, which makes me wonder what is going to happen with Agent Chase (who had fancied Elise). I guess I'll have to read and see...

Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

Embrace the Night (Cassandra Palmer, 3) by Karen Chance

I have to say, Cassie Palmer really DID embrace the night in this latest book by Karen Chance. She does a lot of interesting things in this book that she would not have been willing or capable of doing in the first two books.

The book starts off a couple weeks after the last book ends but the action starts immediately with no review of what has happened in previous books. This can make the series a little difficult to read if you are not reading them one after the other or if you pick up the wrong one first.

Cassie is still trying to fit into her role as the new Pythia, the seer for the entire magical community, but she seems to have much better luck finally adapting to the position in this novel. At several points near the end she uses her position to justify her actions to some characters that would have been on her do-not-cross list in the previous books and they step aside for her. It's gratifying to see her make some progress in that arena.

Since the storyline does deal so heavily with finding the Codex Merlini in both time and space the action can get a little garbled but the plot is not so complex that you get lost, just complex enough for you to really think about aspects of it. Cassie is seeking out the Codex in order to reverse the geis that was placed on her (once) and Mircea (twice) to bind them together. Since this threatens Cassie's independence she's willing to go through quite a few hoops to get it removed. An emergency 'out' was built into the geis (sex with the originator - in this case Mircea - or with one of his chosen stand-ins) but Cassie tried that in the last book with Tomas and it didn't exactly work.

Along for the ride is Pritkin who, as a war mage, is sworn to protect the Pythia. Pritkin is the source of most of the confusing aspects of this book as several interesting factoids about his past come to light. First off, Pritkin is half incubus and his father, King of the Demons, would really like to kill the Pythia and nearly seduces Cassie twice to get the job done. The thing is that he looks almost exactly like Pritkin but more stylish so Cassie confuses them at first.

The other major thing is Pritkin IS Merlin and wrote the Codex way back in the day. This leads to a long series of time-jumping, confusion about a map to the Codex which interestingly enough somehow involves stripping, a lot of distrust and some almost paradoxical episodes. Pritkin has tried to remove the geis from Cassie and Mircea but since it got doubled on one end the spell warped and the standard removal spell just won't cut it.

Cassie finally figures out how to remove the geis but it involves having sex with a Mircea from two time periods. Some parts of that were quite confusing (is it a threesome if there are three bodies and only two lives?) and the rest was interesting and dramatic enough to make up for the confusing bits. Cassie still has several problems on the horizon but there's quite a bit more light at the end of this book than at the others. At least the geis is gone and Cassie is finally starting to assert some sway over others so she's not constantly running but standing up to protect as well.

This was my favorite of the books so far and I can't wait until the fourth book comes out.

Raintree: Inferno by Linda Howard

Raintree: Inferno (Silhouette Nocture) by Linda Howard

The book starts out so promising. Dante Raintree is owner of the casino in Reno the Inferno which is ironic on more than just the name level since Dante is a Level 1 Fire Master AND his casino burns down as the first action of the book.

As Dranir ("king" of the Raintree clan) Dante is the most powerful of his family as so has some rather interesting gifts aside from being able to control fire.

When he first meets Lorna Clay, it's because he thinks she's been cheating in his casino, counting cards or something because she continues to win without appearing to try. But she's not cheating... she just knows what cards are coming, which slot will pay off. Before he is done questioning her the fire alarms in his casino go off and Dante uses a mind compulsion to get all of the guests (and Lorna) down the stairs and into safety. He then uses that compulsion to keep Lorna with him despite the fact that she is extremely afraid of fire. When Dante is unable to calm the fire that is raging through his casino he turns to Lorna and takes her raw power to help save them from the heat and the smoke that is overwhelming them. Several hours later he takes her to his home under the pretense that he's not done questioning her and keeping her under the compulsion. By that time she's figured the compulsion thing out and is spiting mad. To make matters worse he orders her to "strip" so that he can see if she has the mark of someone of the Ansara clan (a rival and enemy) but doesn't bother to explain himself. Since she doesn't have the mark, Lorna is a "stray" as Dante calls her - not affiliated with either the Raintree or the Ansara clans which makes her inherent power and precognitive ability so much more unusual. She's untrained which is the next pretense for keeping her with him.

The Ansara were the ones that set the casino on fire and it took four of them to maintain that fire and still Dante and Lorna survived. Their next attempt to kill the Dranir is with a car accident on the highway but again Dante and Lorna both walk away pretty much unscathed due to some tricky driving and a protection charm.

By this time they are on better terms with each other and really learning the extent of Lorna's power. She feels sick before each attempt on their lives and is able to save him from the last attempt - a marksman with a rifle outside his home. The book pretty much ends with Dante calling his two siblings, Gideon and Mercy, and warning them about the upcoming attack on the family home.

The book ends starkly even though the action is obviously nowhere near finished. I have heard the following two books are better, so I'll have to see how that goes...

Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

The second book in the Cassandra Palmer Series by Karen Chance is full of crazy drama and great paranormal characters.

Cassie is on a major tear to find and punish Tony, the vampire that ruined her family years ago. With her new powers as Pythia, although not fully realized, Cassie is even more a target for the shady elements of paranormal society than usual and trouble is never far from poor Cassie. Within the first few pages Cassie (and her new friends the Three Fates) practically destroy a casino and almost get captured/killed by the Silver Circle.

Her one ally in this book is Pritkin, the slightly trigger-happy war mage of the Silver Circle. Pritkin helps Cassie as she travels through time in an attempt to save Mircea, the vampire who protected her throughout her youth, from Myra, the sybil who had been heir to the Pythia before falling in with Rasputin. Without Mircea protecting Cassie from Tony, Cassie's not sure she'd have made it to adulthood -- not to mention a flood of other possible changes in their timeline. To protect the timeline as well as herself Cassie has to save Mircea at least twice in the past.

This wouldn't be a major problem except for the geas that was placed on Cassie by Mircea that draws them together - and keeps other men away. Since Cassie has the geas in the present but Mircea doesn't have it in the past seeing Cassie there unintentionally casts the geas back onto Mircea. By the time Cassie sees Mircea again in the present the geas has practically crippled Mircea with the need to be near her - it's physically painful to both of them to stay away.

To add to the drama, the power of the Pythia wants to fully exert it's office over Cassie and to do that it has been making every man seem like a delicious dish. She first realizes this when she is absolutely attracted to Pritkin (lol). Cassie does assume the full office of Pythia with Tomas, which I wanted to happen in the first book early on but not so much by the second book.

I liked this second book much better than the first because the characters were already established and the plot could just move forward. Cassie's life is hectic and dangerous and Cassie does not want the power of the Pythia which means she's perfect for the job. I can't wait for the next book.

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale & Dean Hale (illustrated by Nathan Hale)

Rapunzel's Revenge is a great book by a great author.

Shannon Hale retells the classic tale of Rapunzel with a little bit of a Mother Goose (Gothel?) tie-in in a wonderfully comic-book style illustrated book.

Hale is funny and thoughtful in creating this new version of Rapunzel, a heroine who realizes that the woman who has been raising her is NOT her mother and that her real mother has been slaving away in Mother Gothel's mines. When Rapunzel rebels, Mother Gothel places her in a towering tree room. Mother Gothel posesses growth magic and so the tree is able to provide everything Rapunzel needs to survive for several years.

Finally on Rapunzel's 16th birthday (after her hair has grown to ridiculous lengths, like everything else in the Forest) Rapunzel rebels for the last time and Mother Gothel commands the tree to stop providing food and shelter. Rapunzel uses her hair to swing to safety and the real adventure starts from there.

Rapunzel immediately meets several characters and makes a friend of Jack, a briefly cross-dressing, goose-toting man with some fairly loose morals when it comes to stealing. Rapunzel and Jack save each other from some seedy characters before heading out of town on stolen horses.

Rapunzel (or Punzie as Jack sometimes calls her) is determined to save her mother from Mother Gothel's mines. With the help of Jack (and a little bit of magic) Rapunzel is able to get into the party Mother Gothel is hosting and save her mother and all the inhabitants that Mother Gothel had oppressed.

The book is a charming retelling of the fairy tale and the illustrations are terrific. Hale is able to use the illustrations to tell a fuller story. My favorite instance of this is when Rapunzel is escaping from her tree tower and the words say that she manages to gracefully escape but the pictures show her falling into the water around the base of the tree. In this way Hale is able to make the heroine both strong and funny. She's not perfect but learning and growing (without the help of Mother Gothel's magic).

The Darkest Kiss by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Kiss (Lords of the Underworld, 2) by Gena Showalter

The second installation of Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld Series was much better than the first of the series (in my humble opinion). It could have to do with the fact that the characters were a tad more believable or it could have been the fact that all the backstory setup was already accomplished.

I had a problem with Violence (Maddox) becoming anwhere reasonably tempered in the first book but found Death (Lucien) to be spot-on what I was expecting. Lucien is cold, shut-off from emotion and others in an effort to keep his own demon perfectly under his iron control.

And then there's Anya, minor goddess of Anarchy and a more perfect foil for Lucien's staidness couldn't be found. She is snarky and silly and goes after what she wants without regard to anyone. In their first meeting she tempts him in front of his brothers to lose control and almost suceeds. She lies and thieves to keep her more violent side at bay and just can't seem to get enough of Lucien.

It really does work out perfectly since as a goddess Anya is immortal like the rest of the Lords of the Underworld and Anya is perfectly capable of defending herself against Death. Cronus, the king of the Titans, has set a task to Lucien; to kill Anya or else he will make the other Lords suffer. Initially Lucien tries to take Anya out but his attempts are half-hearted at best. Little by little they learn about each other and why the Titans are toying with them.

Anya is the daughter of Lawlessness and Tartarus. Tartarus' wife is Justice and when she found out about Anya, Justice cursed her so that Anya would never be able to complete the sex act. Penetration would bind her to the man for forever, even if he were to love another. To further complicate matters Anya carries within her the All-Key which allows her to escape from any prison and guarantees her freedom. The person that kills her to take the All-Key becomes powerless himself (something that Cronus didn't exactly tell Lucien) and if Anya were to freely give up the All-Key she would lose all memory of her life while she had the All-Key. This renders both Lucien and Anya helpless to save each other on more than one occasion. To up the ante (again) the Lords of the Underworld must search out Pandora's box before the Hunters find it and to find it they must find four powerful objects first.

This book is action packed and easy to read. Lucien and Anya are a much better couple than Maddox and Ashlyn were in the first book and there is so much else going on that even if you don't like them as characters there is backup and the third book is poised to start with Reyes and Danika. I can't wait to see how THAT turns out...