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AnnA H. (stormchaserblue) - Reviews

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Puffin Books)
Review Date: 10/13/2010


It was interesting to read them as an adult. Knowing the nonsense and not being able to accept the possibility of the craziness with that child like wonder.

We all know the stories so I will not bore with the summary, but try and entertain with some facts that at least I did not know.

It is believed that it was written for one girl but it is actually based off a story told to three girls, the Liddell sisters, in a row boat on the River Thames. Alice was the main character and asked for it to be written down for her. The original title was Alices Adventures underground. Since its first publication the book has never been out of print, saying much for the love of its readers.

The author is Charles Dodgson, a minister who used Lewis Carroll as a pen name, appears in the story as a Dodo during the Caucus-Race. In fact all the members of the boating party are represented at the race. The duck is Canon Duckworth, the Lory refers to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell. Alice is, of course, herself. The sisters are again referenced in the Dormouses tale. The Liddell sisters: Elsie is L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.

In Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There I was most amused to discover that when the white queen was shouting about "crabs" and "feathers" she was actually using rowing jargon, and thusly actually speaking logically!

The characters of Hatta and Haigha (pronounced as the English would have said "hatter" and "hare") make a reappearance, and are pictured to resemble their Wonderland counterparts, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.


All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 7)
All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 7)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 1764
Review Date: 4/24/2010


Sookie has agreed to work the vampire convention for Sophie-Anne Leclerq the Queen of Louisiana. Since hurricane Katrina the numbers of the Louisiana group are smaller. Since the Queen is worried about standing trial for the death of her husband the King of Arkansas her attendance is compulsory.
The Queen is already in a precarious position, her power base weakened by the damage to New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. Her main accuser is Jennifer Cater, a vampire who had been training to be the king's lieutenant at the time of his death. Jennifer is determined to see Sophie-Anne staked in the sun for murdering the king, although Sookie knows the Queen is innocent of the crime.
Sophie-Anne plans to put Sookie's gift to good use, having her "listen in" on the thoughts of the humans working for the other vampires at the convention as well as for the hotel itself. As usual Sookie is up to the task, even if shes not quite sure what it is. With the help of Barry the bellboy she just may figure it out before all hell breaks loose.


All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 7)
All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 7)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.4/5 Stars.
 379
Review Date: 3/20/2011


All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
Sookie has agreed to work the vampire convention for Sophie-Anne Leclerq the Queen of Louisiana. Since hurricane Katrina the numbers of the Louisiana group are smaller. Since the Queen is worried about standing trial for the death of her husband the King of Arkansas her attendance is compulsory.
The Queen is already in a precarious position, her power base weakened by the damage to New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. Her main accuser is Jennifer Cater, a vampire who had been training to be the king's lieutenant at the time of his death. Jennifer is determined to see Sophie-Anne staked in the sun for murdering the king, although Sookie knows the Queen is innocent of the crime.
Sophie-Anne plans to put Sookie's gift to good use, having her "listen in" on the thoughts of the humans working for the other vampires at the convention as well as for the hotel itself. As usual Sookie is up to the task, even if shes not quite sure what it is. With the help of Barry the bellboy she just may figure it out before all hell breaks loose.


Anonymous Rex / Casual Rex Omnibus
Anonymous Rex / Casual Rex Omnibus
Author: Eric Garcia
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 19
Review Date: 8/30/2009


Casual Rex is Garcia's second "Rex" novel, but it is actually a prequel to Anonymous Rex, I found this out after reading Casual Rex. The book is written in first person, in the classic style of ye olde detective mysteries from the golden age of Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade, with a twist of dino. Yes I said Dino, as in dinosaurs, they did not die out they adapted and are hiding among us. 16 species survived the meteors and use high tech suits to walk among us
Victor, aka Vincent Rubio, and his partner Ernie are your basic PIs -- snooping on roving spouses, hunting down petty thieves, etc. Their humdrum state of existence changes when Ernie's ex-wife asks them to find her brother and bring him home (forcibly, if necessary). It seems the poor kid has gotten all caught up in a dino cult called the Progressives. Most dinosaurs have accepted the fact that they have to go to great pains to pass themselves off as humans, but some yearn for the old lifestyle of complete dino freedom.
Vic and Ernie infiltrate the cult and get their man, but that's just the beginning of the story.
There's something really sinister going on here, and our detective heroes are determined to find out just what the Progressives are up to. Their mission eventually leads them to a back-to-nature retreat in the islands of Hawaii, where they learn even more than they bargained for about the cult.
The novel deals with such serious issues as drug abuse (ah, sweet basil), prostitution, cults, murder, kidnapping, and your proverbial world domination and genocide, as well as friendship, love, honor, gender confusion aka drag queens, and humanity (or whatever the dinosaur equivalent of that would be). The twists were good enough to keep me second guessing myself most of the time. Worth the read if you are a fan of either sci-fi or mysteries.


Approaching Oblivion
Approaching Oblivion
Author: Harlan Ellison
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 2
Review Date: 3/20/2011


Approaching Oblivion by Robert Silverberg
This book has three stories and here I have reviewed two of them.
The World Inside written by Robert Silverberg and published in 1971. The novel first chapter was first published in 1970 as a short story titled "A Happy Day in 2381". The World Inside was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1972.
The world has eradicated war, starvation, crime and birth control. Life is now totally fulfilled and sustained within Urban Monads (Urbmons), mammoth thousand-floor skyscrapers arranged in "constellations", where the shadow of one building does not fall upon another. An Urbmon is divided into 25 self-contained "cities" of 40 floors each, in ascending order of status, with administrators occupying the highest level. Each building can hold approximately 800,000 people, with excess population totaling three billion a year transferred to new Urbmons, which are continually under construction.
The Urbmons are a world of total sexual freedom where men are expected to engage in "night walking", in line with the ideals of free love in the 60s, it is considered a crime for a woman to refuse an invitation for sex. In this world it is a blessing to have children: most people are married at 12 and parents at 14.
Although great effort is spent to maintain a stable society, the Urban Monad lifestyle causes mental illness in a small percentage of people, and this fate befalls two of the book's main characters. "Social engineers" reprogram those who are approaching an unacceptable level of behavior.
The Urbmon population is supported by the conversion of all of the Earth's habitable land area not taken up by Urbmons to agriculture. The theoretical limit of the population supported by this arrangement is estimated to be 200 billion. The farmers live a very different lifestyle, with strict birth control and pagan rights. Farmers trade their produce for technology and the two societies rarely have direct contact; even their languages are mutually unintelligible.
The characters in the story all show different aspects of life in the Urbmon. Some, like Aurea Holston, are breaking down from the life they live in. She also laments her lack of children.
Siegmund Kluver is also mentally falling apart, from the realization that the shining, smiling, happy façade of the Urbmon is covering a nightmare that he cant wake up from.
He is related to Michael Statler a computer tech that escapes the Urbmon, learns about the Farmers civilization and when he returns is greeted with the swift justice that helps maintain the harmony of the Urbmon.
Approaching Oblivion (50 books in a year) by Harlan Ellison
Approaching Oblivion is a collection of short stories by author Harlan Ellison. The short stories had appeared in a variety of magazines throughout the early 1970s with the exceptions of "Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman" which first appeared in 1962 and "Ecowareness" which was previously unpublished.
According to the introduction, the book was originally conceived in 1970 as a call to action, that would contain cautionary tales from Ellison's previous books. Over the next four years the book changed to include previously uncollected stories with underlying themes of disillusionment and futility in rebelling.
The foreword by fiction author Michael Crichton paints a picture of Ellison as an energetic, eclectic, uncompromising, and sometimes obstinate individual. It also describes the struggle and resentment felt by many of the people who have worked with Ellison in the movie business. I had previously heard about Ellisons confrontation with Star trek and Paramount, an ongoing legal battle over the script for city on the edge of forever.
Approaching Oblivion includes a Forward: Approaching Ellison by Michael Crichton as well as the Introduction: Reaping the Whirlwind. The stories it contained are;
Knox
Cold Friend
Kiss of Fire
Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman
I'm Looking for Kadak
Silent in Gehenna
Erotophobia
One Life, Furnished in Early poverty
Ecowareness
Catman
Hindsight:480 Seconds

I liked Knox, Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman, One Life, Furnished in Early poverty
Ecowareness, and Catman.


Ash (The Alt Apocalypse)
Ash (The Alt Apocalypse)
Author: Tom Abrahams
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 3/28/2021


This interesting concept this series is the same people re-set in a series of disasters. Ash is the first and it starts with "the big one," a nuclear bomb.
We first meet our characters; a group of college students, some criminals living homeless in tents on the beach, a survival collective that started in 1948, and a fry cook with his dog, as they experience this catastrophe. From the fiery bomb to the gray, ash cloud and the world that descends after. This story explores the psychological aspects of what a disaster will do to your moral compass. How when the niceties of our civilized world are pulled down we really have a chance to see what we are capable of when every day is the worst day ever.


The Black Arrow (Penguin Popular Classics)
The Black Arrow (Penguin Popular Classics)
Author: Robert L. Stevenson
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 2
Review Date: 10/13/2010


The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses is a book that was featured on the kids show Wishbone when my son was little. I liked the story line and went out to read the book, of course I could not find it anywhere. Not even at the library! Well its been several years and since I started thinking about reading several classics next year I figured what a great book to end this year with! (also I found it at a garage sale)

Its a1888 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the authors note he admits he wrote it in retaliation to another author. It consists of five books or sections (and yes I was really wanting to count all five books instead of just one) that were originally released as a serial in a magazine.

The Black Arrow tells the story of Richard (Dick) Shelton during the War of the Roses. He is being raised by Sir Daniel Brackley who unbeknownst to Dick is the villain who murdered his father. When the Black Arrow begins to retaliate for the four black hearts that have harmed the masses. Dick is sent to Kettley along the road he meets Joanna Sedley, disguised as a boy and going by the alias of John Matcham. She was an heiress kidnapped by Sir Daniel, who wanted to obtain guardianship over her like Brackley did over Dick.

Joanna tries to persuade Dick to turn against Sir Daniel, and when they run into the Black Arrow Dicks loyalties are tested. Later they run into Sir Daniel in the woods and go with him to the Moat House where Dick finds out that his guardian is a murder and has plans to kill Dick. He is rescued by the outlaws of the Black Arrow with whom he throws in his lot for the rest of the story.

The second half of the novel, tells how Dick rescues his true love Joanna from the clutches of Sir Daniel with the help of both the Black Arrow fellowship and the Yorkist army led by Richard Crookback, the future Richard III.


Boneshaker (Clockwork Century, Bk 1)
Boneshaker (Clockwork Century, Bk 1)
Author: Cherie Priest
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 120
Review Date: 3/2/2011


Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Boneshaker is a novel by Cherie Priest which combines steampunk, zombies and an alternate version of the history of Seattle. Based early in the American Civil War, this book starts as rumors of gold brought thousands of hopeful prospectors to the Pacific Northwest.
Russian investors commission an American inventor Leviticus Blue to create a tunneling machine that will mine through the ice of Russian owned Alaska. The Incredible Bone Shaking Drill Engine or Boneshaker for short, is rushed and destroys several blocks of downtown Seattle releasing a subterranean vein of blight gas during its maiden voyage. The blight gas, or blight for short, kills anyone who breaths it and turns their corpses into the walking dead called rotters.
During the exodus Maynard Wilkes, a Seattle law enforcement agent, committed an act of great mercy and bravery by releasing the prisoners in his care before they could be blighted, losing his life in the process, and becoming a hero to those left behind the hastily walled-off city of Seattle, and a pariah to the settlers in the Outskirts beyond the wall.
Sixteen years pass and Leviticus's wife, Briar the daughter of Wilkes, lives in the impoverished outskirts of the former metropolis. Life is hard with a teenage son to feed. Ezekiel, but Zeke for short, wants to prove his father, like his grandfather, was innocent of wrong doing but just a man trying to do his best. He enters the lifeless city through a drainage whole that collapses in an earthquake after he enters.
Briar intends on following her son when she discovers his mission. Forced to hitch a ride over the wall by a captain of an airship, the unnaturally tall Captain Cly she rapidly learns that the rotters are still moving all these years later.
Inside the walls Briar quickly finds her self in over her head. Jeremiah Swakhammer and his Doozy Dazer rescue Briar from the roof of a building surrounded by rotters. He takes her to a bar named in honor of her deceased father to meet people including the armless barkeeper, Lucy O'gunning. Once again however rotters attack the bar forcing the occupants to retreat. It is later revealed that a man by the name of Minnericht caused the rotter attack. Lucy takes Briar to see Minnericht who claims to be the late Leviticus Blue, though Briar doubts this. Unbeknownst to her, Minnericht has Zeke hostage, but war breaks out between Minnericht's men and Swakhammer, Lucy, the Indian princess, and those on their side. This war attracts the rotters...
Well worth the read if you are a fan of steampunk, zombies, or alternate history.


Candide
Candide
Author: Voltaire, Lowell Bair (Translator), Sheilah Beckett (Illustrator)
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 65
Review Date: 2/3/2011


Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire, written by Voltaire in 1759. Frequently described as face paced the book begins with a young man, Candide, living in the castle of Barons Thunder-ten-tronckh being taught by Pangloss, a philosopher who believed in Optimism. The book follows the tale of Candides expulsion from this life and his suffering of the hardships of this world. Candide loses his mentor and pickes up another, Martin, who is a pessimist the two men argue about philosophy.
The book bases events on real historical happenings, the Sevens Years war, the Portuguses Inquisition, and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. This book did cause quite a stir when first published it was banned because of the religious blasphemy and political sedition, in this the best of all possible of worlds. This book is closely related to Swifts Gullivers travels, published 1726.
Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not outright rejecting optimism, advocating an enigmatic rule, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds".


Cell
Cell
Author: Stephen King
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 711
Review Date: 10/23/2009


Clayton Riddell, a struggling artist from Maine who is estranged from his wife, Sharon, and his young son, Johnny, has landed a graphic novel deal in Boston. As he begins to allow himself to celebrate, somebody, somewhere, triggers "The Pulse," a signal sent out over the global cell phone network that instantly strips any cell phone user of their sanity, turning them into bloodthirsty, homicidal creatures.
Civilization crumbles as the Pulse's victims, dubbed "phone crazies" or simply "phoners", attack each other and any unaltered people in view. In the first few hours of chaos, Clay is thrown together with Tom McCourt, and fifteen-year-old Alice Maxwell.
In the first few days the phoners begin "flocking", migrating in lockstep, only to disappear at dusk every evening. They also begin to regain a semblance of intelligence, and forage not only for food, but also radios and CD players.
On the trek north one days sleep spent at Gaiten Academy, a prep school with one remaining teacher, Charles Ardai, and one surviving pupil, Jordan. They discover where the phoner flock goes at night, stuffed into the Academy's soccer field with radios and speakers throughout the field, playing a selection of random songs each night.
Ardai demonstrates that the phoners have become a hive mind, and are developing psychic and telekinetic abilities. The five of them decide that they must destroy the flock before its powers grow even stronger.
The sleep that follows is filled with a horrendous dream, in which everyone sees themselves in a stadium, surrounded by hundreds of phoners who broadcast a grim telepathic threat in Latin. A disheveled man wearing a Harvard University hooded sweatshirt approaches, bringing their death.
When they wake the man dubbed âThe raggedy manâ leads the flock on bloody reprisal on all other normals in the area, and orders the protagonists to head north to a spot in Maine called "Kashwak", where there is no cell phone reception. The flock psychically compels Ardai to commit suicide after writing the word "insane" in multiple languages. Clay and the others bury him and travel north, mostly because Clay is still determined to go home.
I liked this book because of the twists and while I am not a huge fan of King this work restored my faith in the author. I have also discovered that it will soon be made into a tv mini series, not a movie with Eli Roth at the helm as was stated in 2006. :(


The City of Ember (Ember, Bk 1)
The City of Ember (Ember, Bk 1)
Author: Jeanne Duprau
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 316
Review Date: 1/6/2010


The City of Ember is a 2003 post-apocalyptic book by Jeanne DuPrau. It revolves around the City of Ember which is the only light in the dark world. Beyond Ember, the darkness goes on forever in all directions. When the children of the city of Ember finish school, they begin work at 12 years of age. . . .
The protagonist, Lina Mayfleet desperately wants to be a messenger. Messengers spend their days outside, running from one corner of the city to the other. Instead, she draws the dreaded job of Pipeworks laborer, which means she'll be stuck in tunnels deep underground. But as luck would have it Doon Harrow draws messenger and asks to trade with Lina! Doon wants to be underground. That's where the generator is, and Doon has ideas about how to fix it. For as long as anyone can remember, the great lights of Ember have kept the endless darkness that surrounds the city at bay. But now the lights are starting to flicker.
When Lina finds fragments of an ancient parchment, she and Doon put the pieces together to discover a message that seems to be directions out of the city.
This is actually the second in chronicle order of the four books of Ember, The Prophet of Yonwood is about the decent into Ember. There are also two other books about what happens after the escape from Ember, The People of Sparks and
The Diamond of Darkhold are the final installments as of now. I hope to find and read all four with my children before my year is out.


Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 9)
Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 9)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 958
Review Date: 4/24/2010


The Weres and Shifters have finally decided to follow the lead of the undead and reveal their existence to the ordinary world.
At first it seems to go well. The violence erupts close to home, hitting Sams mother and stepfather, Sams mother is a supe, but she has kept her identity from the rest of the family. The mutilated body of Jason's pregnant were-panther wife is found in the parking lot of Merlottes, creates suspicion around Jason and a challenge for Sookie, who is in charge of the bar while Sam is away tending to his family problems.
What she doesn't realize is that there is a far greater danger than the killer threatening Bon Temps. Her newly reunited great-grandfather, a fairy, brings her right in the middle of his battle.
In the meantime, the FBI has found Sookie, and they come calling with the hopes that she will serve their cause. The new vampire king, Felipe de Castro, has taken a strong interest in Sookies unique talents, as well.


Dead Witch Walking (Hollows, Bk 1)
Dead Witch Walking (Hollows, Bk 1)
Author: Kim Harrison
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1430
Review Date: 4/18/2010


This series was recommended to me by a few friends. It is another take on the super/witch/were world set in the Hallows a suburb of Cincinnati Ohio. The premise is the human population was decimated by infected tomatoes and the supernatural community uses this large reduction in the humans to make them selves known. They figure that at least if things go poorly they will have the best tactical advantage in millennia.
The story focuses on Rachel Morgan a witch with the IS, a governing agency for non-humans. She is a runner, or cop, and she has had it with the bureaucracy, her dumbass boss, getting the worst assignments, and she terminates her contract. Opening an independent business along with another runner Lily, who is a living vampire, and Jenks, who is a fairy she has to avoid a hit put out on her by her former boss Denon.
She spends the book trying to avoid her own death and work a case large enough to pay off her contract.
A different take on an altaverse, that includes new twists on traditional mythos, like the living vamps a pixie vs fairy war and different were creatures. A good read if you like the dead series by Charlaine Harris.


Deja Demon: The Days and Nights of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (Kate Connor, Bk 4)
Review Date: 2/3/2011


Deja Demon: The Days and Nights of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom
Childrens parties are about the most awful thing a parent can face for the sake of our children. In this book Kate has to not only handle a party but one for a toddler with the ever present threat of demons crashing the event! Good thing Kate allowed Allie to begin her training, one speed bump in trying to her family life separate from her work for Forza. Another problem is the resurrection of Kates first husband from the dead. He now wants to spend time with his daughter, and since he is currently in the body of a high school teacher there really is no good way to explain visitation.
This time its the High Demon Goramesh who has returned to San Diablo, this time with a full-blown army of the undead and a plan to get rid of Kate before she can get rid of him.
Can Kate trust Stuart enough to confide in him? More importantly can Kate take out Goramest and protect San Diablo?


Demon Ex Machina (Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom, Bk 5)
Demon Ex Machina (Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom, Bk 5)
Author: Julie Kenner
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 23
Review Date: 2/3/2011


*spoilers below for earlier books*
Demon Ex Machina
Her first husband is possessed by a demon and her current husband spending way too much time at home, Demon Hunter Kate Connor is having one hell of a month. I found it funny that in my life I accidently took on another task I had not time for so I pulled a book to read and the main character did the same thing. Kate in addition to all the other things she has on her plate is now teaching self defense classes to the local moms.
To make matters worse, ever since her husband Stuart learned about his wife's secret life, he's been practically smothering her with attention. All while she is trying to help her ex get the demon out of his body with out killing him.
If you would like a teaser check out the first chapter.
http://www.juliekenner.com/demonexmachina1.php


Demons are Forever: Confessions of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (Kate Connor, Bk 3)
Review Date: 2/3/2011


Demons are forever
When I am feeling swamped due to the to do list of chores I pull out a Demon book by Julie Kenner. Kate is a model mother of two, Timmy an active toddler and Allie a teen. She is a wife to Stuart, currently running for San Diablo County Attorney, and some how manages to work as a Level Four Demon Hunter for Forza Scura, volunteer at her church and PTA Mom. Her life makes my pile of stuff seem less dreadful and less life threatening.
The third book in the series Demons are forever, continues the story from California Demons. It deals with Allies kidnapping, and Kates first love/husband returning from the dead in the body of one of Allies teachers. To make matters more difficult now that Allie knows the truth of her mothers demon hunting she wants to help, and learn.
All of the books are good quick read.


A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows, Bk 4)
A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows, Bk 4)
Author: Kim Harrison
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 899
Review Date: 3/20/2011


Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison
As Ive been trying to read 50 books in one year I have slowly been working my way through Kim Harrisons The Hollows (Rachel Morgan) series, and I just completed the fourth book, Fistful of Charms. The series follows the adventures of Rachel Morgan, a witch and independent runner, which is kind of like a private investigator/bounty hunter.
In the last books Jenks has been on the outs with Ivy and Rachel, but when Jenks son Jax disappears and then calls for help Jenks and Rachel rush to Michigan to pick him up.
Jax tells them that Rachels ex-boyfriend Nick the thief is being held on an island populated by Weres because he double crossed them after finding an artifact that has gone missing for centuries.
After using a spell, actually a curse but shes not splitting hairs, to shift into a wolf form so she can fight an alpha were for their freedom, she wins the battle and they manage to escape the island.
However Nick has the artifact and the Weres will do anything to retrieve it. Somehow, Jenks, Rachel and Ivy who joins them later must find a way to elude the Weres and stop Nick from stealing the artifact otherwise a vampire/Were power struggle will break out with many people injured in what eventually will become a war.
I liked this book, along with the others in the series that I have read. Harrison gives her characters real and messy lives, which can be hard in a sci-fi setting. There is,however, quite a lot of introspection on Rachels part in this book making her kind of whinny. It was good to see some of the reasoning behind some of the characters choices, but it did get a little annoying. I will still read the next book, which is coming to me via paperback swap.
So a little more than a month to go (33 days) and five books still to finish. . . Im not sure Im gonna make this but I am really proud of how far Ive come.


For a Few Demons More (The Hollows, Bk 5)
For a Few Demons More (The Hollows, Bk 5)
Author: Kim Harrison
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 571
Review Date: 3/20/2011
Helpful Score: 1


For a Few Demons More
by Kim Harrison
The fifth installment of the urban fantasy-thriller series starring Rachel Morgan arrived from paperback swap the other day and I read through it so quickly that I was done in two days.
Bargaining with demons has left Rachel Morgan in constant danger of losing her soul. The book opens with her waking while sleep walking and possessed with a demon who is searching for something she believes Rachel has. We learn a lot about the world of demons in this book, like only the males cross the lines and when one very crazy female crosses to our side Rachels life gets crazy (er).
The demon that was ransacking her home with no fear of sanctified ground, cause she not only unsanctified the church but damned it. Its not until the human morgue starts to fill up with partially-turned lupine women who have been brutally murdered, that Rachel realizes that someone else knows the Focus still exists and that she may have been betrayed.
With an invitation to her old adversary Trents wedding and Al, who has a score to settle with her freely running about the city in possession of a human body, Rachel has more to worry about than the focus though. 
One of the things that I like about Harrison is that the events in this story carry on plot lines from the previous novels and the development of the characters and the characters relationships in this series. This book, or at least my copy, also included a short story in the back as a thanks to her readers. I like that I didnt have to go buy some anthology with a bunch of other writers that I may or may not like to read this work.


The Good, The Bad, and The Undead (The Hollows, Bk 2)
The Good, The Bad, and The Undead (The Hollows, Bk 2)
Author: Kim Harrison
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 1175
Review Date: 3/20/2011


The good, the bad, and the undead by Kim Harrison
The second book in the Hallows series has someone killing the lay-line witches of Cincinnati. The FIB hires Rachel to attend classes and put herself in harms way as well as look into the possibility that the professor is the killer. Through a series of accidents while learning a new for of magic Rachel accidently makes her boyfriend, Nick, her familiar, finds out what race Trent is, a closely hidden secret, and makes a deal with Big Al the demon from the first book.


Grave Secret (Harper Connelly, Bk 4)
Grave Secret (Harper Connelly, Bk 4)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 249
Review Date: 3/2/2011
Helpful Score: 2


Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris
The fourth book in the series answers many unanswered questions in the life of Harper Connelly, and her stepbrother Tolliver. They decide to take a break and visit their half sisters who live with their aunt and uncle, right after one last job.
But as often happens when you return home, bad memories surface. This is compounded when Tolliver finds out his father, Matthew, is out of jail and wanting to reconnect with his children. Mark, Tollivers brother, wants to be there for his dad but Tolliver wants nothing to do with his father.
Tolliver and Harper tell their aunt and uncle about there new relationship and put a strain on the visit. To make matters worse Matthew will not take no for an answer and shows up when Tolliver and Harper are visiting their sisters.
Things heat up when Tolliver gets shot and a police officer who is protecting Harper dies from a gunshot. It seems that the last case is somehow connected to the broken home Harper and Tolliver grew up in.
If you liked any of the first book you will really enjoy the fourth, but if you are new to the series start at the beginning this is not a story line you can jump into and expect to get as much out of it if you dont know the back story.


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