The Soul Mirror (Collegia Magica #2) by Carol Berg

The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Carol Berg kept me up all night reading her all-too engrossing book! I love the intrigue and the setting of this series, and I have always liked the main character since she first appeared near the end of book one. There is   twisted deviousness and devious twists, betrayal, redemption and love in this story of magic and blood.


Looking forward very much to the next book, which I am guessing will feature my favorite chevalier and one wronged and bitter brother.


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In for a Penny by Rose Lerner

In for a Penny by Rose Lerner
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (June 2, 2015)
Paperback: 306 pages ISBN: 978-1619225565
Kindle:  814 KB ASIN: B00I6BQZC2

I loved this! A lot of Georgette Heyer, a bit of Austen, actual danger, and a bit of of modern regency romance, and altogether a lovely feel-good story.
I actually read this when it first came out in mass market paperback, which seems out of print now.
I'm so glad it's been reissued by a new publisher.
Available in both paperback and kindle on Amazon .
 

Truthseeker promo at Bitten By Books!

C.E. Murphy interview and a chance to win cool prizes!
I am really excited about her new series; almost as excited as I am to read the next book in The Walker Papers.

Demon Hunts by C.E. Murphy

Demon Hunts by C.E. Murphy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I liked reading a snowy, cold mystery in the middle of a record-breaking heat-wave. Joanne displays a lot of maturity and is even more likable in this one. And let's hear it for awesome septuagenarians! Can't say too much without being spoilery, but we get to meet some interesting characters face-to-face.

minor spoilage
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Team M vs. Team C ?

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Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ever think about the good press the Romans STILL get, even today? That was the offhand comment that so luckily got me a chance to read an advanced copy of Kate Elliott's fantastic new novel, Cold Magic.

It's 1837 England in an ice-locked world where the Romans were battled to a standstill by the Phoenicians, and over time Europe had dissolved into small principalities. The real power resides in the Cold Mages, the magically gifted descendants of West African refugees and Celtic druids. But the Industrial Revolution is at hand, emphasis on "Revolution."

Catherine and Beatrice, or Cat and Bee, as they call each other, are devoted and inseparable cousins. They are genteel, if somewhat impoverished, young Phoenician ladies attending academy lectures on aerostatics on the all-girls balcony while teasing each other about the cute guy in the main hall. They keep secrets, but never from each other, and they can face anything together. Until Cat is suddenly taken away and finds herself first a prisoner, then a fugitive, in a terrible race to save herself and Bee from factions that are using them as battle pieces in an ugly conflict about to spark.

I love this book. It's about magic, romance, friendship, family, and loyalty, and history turned on it's head. It's about "Lies The Romans Told" and the Napoleon that might have been. I stayed up until 1 am to find out what happens, and now I am going back over alt-history details and looking them up on the web. And checking the map on the front against modern maps thinking "why is it named that ... oh, clever!" It's a great story set in a rich, fascinating world and I hope everyone gets a chance to read it when it hits the bookstore shelves in September.

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Black Magic Sanction by Rachel Morgan

Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars rounded up. It's been a while since I read the last book of this series (which happens to be one of my favorites), and I wasn't sure if I would remember everything relevant to this book. The author does a good job of reminding without too much info-dumping, and the story is fast-paced and engrossing.

I took a half star off because I found the moment when Rachel was dithering over a major spell very annoying. I know it's supposed to show her moral center and all that, but I was on Ceri's side reading it. I took a whole star off because I don't really know what Rachel wants anymore; we know what she thinks she wants, but I don't feel that ultimate character want. She is spending too much time in the crossroads and needs to make a decision on what she is ... or as a reader I will start to lose interest. Just worried about that.

Minor spoilers from here on:
I really enjoyed the Al/Rachel interactions - talk about chemistry! I am a Rachel/Ivy shipper, and that had no movement in this book, and I was prepared to hate flavor-of-the-month Pierce, but I got to like him. Of course I think he is eventually doomed. I am very curious about what will happen next with Jenks.

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Snake Agent by Liz Williams

Snake Agent by Liz Williams


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wacky in a very good way.
I'm too lazy to write a full review but I really enjoyed it. If you get a chance, check it out.

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Green by Jay Lake

Green by Jay Lake


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
For some reason the cover + title had me convinced this was SF, and I had to read several chapters before I conceded that it was fantasy.
This was well-written, on the literary side. The world-building was excellent. The first part reads rather like a version of Memoirs of a Geisha, but then sort of turns into Assassin's Apprentice.  And it has a protagonist lifted from a dusty Asian-like paddy. It's got some feminist sensibilities. It sounds like a book I ought to love. But for some reason I don't. I suppose that on the whole I didn't warm to the main character, who is written as morally ambiguous AND in the first person. I think that is a tricky combination to pull off, and the author didn't quite make it for me.

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was torn between 4 & 5 stars and rated up, because I usually hate dystopian settings and yet the author managed to overcome my bias.
The dystopian setting for Windup Girl is all-too plausible, and drives the plot, but the author wisely focuses on the characters' individual stories and motivations to make it real.

Anderson Lake is the primary character and he is an Iowa "calorie man", an agent of one of the powerful agricultural companies whose genetically modified seeds and plagues have devastated the world. He is working undercover to try to get to the Thai government's secret seed bank.

Emiko is a discarded "windup" - a genetically manufactured non-person designed to be a slavish toy for rich Japanese men. Stranded in Thailand, she is constantly in danger of being mulched by white shirts who regard her kind as a symbol of the evil of genetic tampering.

Hock Seng is a yellow-card Chinese-Malaya refugee of ethnic cleansing by "green headband" Muslim Malays.

Jaidee Rojjanasukthai is captain of the white shirts, the Environment Ministry's enforcement police. A muay thai champion, he fights a losing battle against invasive plagues and government corruption.

About those characters: at first I was mad at the story because it seemed to use the common stereotype of superior white man moving in world of shifty and corrupt brown/yellow people. The the story subverts the stereotypes.

Despite the dark themes, three things made me appreciate this novel. First was the South East Asian setting, well-done and written with authenticity. Second were the cool ideas(like storing energy in batteries). Thirdly and most of all, was the sensibility. This is a story of virtue subverting vengeance, conscience overcoming corruption.

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Discovering Amelia Peabody

I read the first Amelia Peabody mystery last night, Crocodile on the Sandbank.
Simply delightful. I think when I came to this part, on page 7 ...

    After an interval he came bounding back with his eyes gleaming. Nothing delights these gentry so much as misfortune; I was therefore not surprised when he reported that the "turisti" were gathered around a young English lady who had fallen down dead upon the ground.
    "How do you know that she is English?" I inquired.

... I realized that I had fallen in love with Ms. Peabody.

On The Edge by Ilona Andrews Promo Party!

I read this a few days ago and I  love it so much I  am actually going to re-read it, something I rarely do.

And what's even cooler is that they are doing a contest with a chance to win a Sony e-Reader and other cool stuff! (Stuff!)

Elfland and Demon's Lexicon

Two more wonderful reads, lumped together because I read them one after the other, but coincidentally they do share an underlying theme.

Elfland by Freda Warrington is a nice thick urban fantasy about faerie-like demi-mortal beings, Aetherials, some of whom live in our world as humans, although they really belong somewhere else (the Spiral). There is a Gatekeeper between worlds, and at the start of the book he tells the Aetherial community on earth that he's keeping the gate shut for their own good. So a generation of Aetherials grows up without connecting to their heritage. The story focuses on the Gatekeepers kids and the next door Aetherial kids, specially siblings Rose & Lucas. It's written as a family drama and a romance, and what I like best is that the Aetherial characters are written as deeply human. I specially recommend it for romantic readers.


The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan is a fast-paced adventure. Magicians get their power by sacrificing people to demons, and brothers Nick & Alan are on the run from magicians who are trying to get back a magical amulet from their insane ex-magician mother. The story is told from Nick's pov, and he cares only about Alan, because Alan is the one who raised him and looked after him. The trouble is Alan cares about everyone, including a brother and sister who come to them for help, and it's all up to Nick to save Alan from his chivalrous impulses. I really loved this book, because even though Nick is moody and angry and literally murderous, I feel such empathy for him. A very dark story written with lots of humor and wit.

Kate Elliott's Crossroads (Spirit Gate, Shadow Gate, Traitor's Gate)

I have fallen behind on logging all my reads, but I do try to keep up using goodreads. But I at least want to blog about really Wonderful Reads, and here is one from last week.

Traitor's Gate is the third book in the Crossroads series by Kate Elliott, one of my favorite authors, and it wraps up the first part of the saga. The first two books are Spirit Gate and Shadow Gate.

Hm, maybe I should show you what I wrote about each book after I read it:


Spirit Gate (August 2007)

What a big fat book! I love the old Asian feel of the worldbuilding. I admire how the book ends -- a big conflict resolved but so many questions left unanswered. The only downside is the wait 'til the next book

Shadow Gate (June 2008)
I've been meaning to post about Shadow Gate, which is book two in Kate Elliott's Crossroads series. This is a big fat book, rich is calories and flavor.

Consider the ingredients:

- Worldbuilding. Being Filipino, the asian and pacific islander influences in the cultures of the Qin & The Hundred are such a kick to me. The level of detail is wonderful; the feeling that this world really exists we're only seeing bits of it.

- Characters. Let me see if I can explain what I really like about the characters. They are all full of the prejudices of beliefs of their culture and upbringing, and they all consider their own worldviews to be perfectly valid. And that's how they are.

- Mastery. I don't know what else to call the storytelling. The choices she makes in the way she tells the story are just very good. Take for example, Cornflower's story. I usually dislike flashbacks, but I appreciated the choice here, since it allows some emotional distance from what would otherwise have been too painful.

Grand and bewilderingly big, like the construction of a Gothic cathedral -- that's what I think this series is like.

Traitors Gate (September 2009)
I've been busy and thus wary of starting this for fear I'd get sucked in and neglect all else. I was right! I started it yesterday and stayed up all night finishing it! Aui!

Another thing I was worried about was that I would have to refer to Books 1 & 2 to remember what was going on, but as soon as I read page one I was back in the flow. The characters do an initial info dump as they are reintroduced in a way that flows right with the story. Really well done.

In fact, I was a bit more than half-way through the book when I caught myself thinking that this whole trilogy is really a masterpiece of the epic fantasy form.

As to the ending, no WONDER the blurb on the front called it "surprising"*. One of those shocking things that nonetheless had a lot of warning. One might even call them red flags. I too, have perfect hindsight.
The most bittersweet wrap up ever.

I'm full of questions, of course (which the author graciously answered, and I will paraphrase her answers below to make them slightly less spoilery)

... spoilers ahoy ...
Is this the end of Mai & Anji's story as central characters? What about Shai, & Zubaidit? (Answer: Mai will be in the next book)
When did Kate Elliott know what was going to happen to Mai & Anji -- right at the start or did it surprise her too? Did it break her heart? I'm guessing it was planned; really an amazing way of driving home the point of the history Jothinin was retelling -- we didn't see until it was too late. (Answer: Very much planned)
What's the plan for the next books -- when & where will they be set? (Answer: "Crossroads 4 is supposed to take place 15 years later (snip big spoilers). It's not particularly epic. The follow up trilogy is meant to take place almost 60 years after the end of Traitors' Gate and is hugely epic."

*oops, actually, it says "extraordinary", but I somehow remembered it as "surprising". It's both, imo.


In conclusion, Kate Elliott writes three Big, Fat, DELICIOUS books that I heartily recommend to anyone with an appetite for a really wonderful read.
Go forth and DEVOUR them.

currently reading

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- This is for an online book discussion. I am finding it slow going.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
- Saw the BBC movie and was inordinately amused (read LMAO).

The High City by Cecelia Holland
- a new-to-me author; picked it up on impulse at the lib's new books shelf

Jackson & Perkins rose companions by Stephen Scanniello
- someone at the GW Rose forum rec'd this

Deer-resistant landscaping by Neil Soderstrom
- also grabbed of the new books shelf, so far very practical and engaging

just read

Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn
- This was good, but not as good as the first two books. I think Julia and Brisbane behave strangely; Brisbane turns into some kind of Heathcliff/Rochester hybrid and Julia is distrubringly doormat-like.

The Murder Stone by Charles Todd
- a stand-alone, not part of the Inspector Rutledge series. Not as good either. There is a supposed to be horrific twist at the end that is so out of character that it made me laugh, literally.

A Cold Treachery by Charles Todd
- In which which Inspector Rutledge appears to find a love interest.

White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
- I am completely hooked on this series. I hope Harrison publishes the next book soon!