Whiskey Sunrise by Missouri Vaun

Whiskey Sunrise
by Missouri Vaun
Pages: 240 pages
Date: February 16 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 26 to 29 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in return for a fair review.*

This is the first book that I have read written by this author.

Before I get into the normal series of ‘this is what the book is about/this is what I think/etc’ comments, I need to tackle one specific issue head on immediately. Actually, looking at the description, two specific issues.

Nature of the book I was reading - I’m not sure if it’s something that I thought I saw in the book description, something I saw elsewhere, or just the book cover, but I got the wrong impression going into this book. And that impression was that the book involved two women who end up falling for each other. All good there, which was a solid impression that is not changed by reading the book. No, it was the part where I had this vague idea that one of them, Royal to be exact, was living as a man. As in, calling herself a man. She isn’t. She’s living as a woman. Who happens to have short hair, drive fast, drink, chase women, and wear men’s clothing. But there’s no mistaking the issue – she’s doing this as a woman doing these things that defy convention. Not as a woman pretending to be a man (this leads to another issue that I’ll either break out here or elsewhere).

Not a deal breaker or anything like that. I had just confused myself for some reason. In the end, this is one of the few books that I can outright, without any deep thinking on my part (or any need for anything but surface thinking) just call a butch/femme pairing. Since Royal is living in the look of a 1940s butch woman (she’s just 1 year early), at least based on nonfiction I’ve read about lesbian history. With Lovey Porter, the other woman in the book, living the part of the femme.

I don’t wish to go to deep here, but I’ll continue this one extra inch. The stereotypical butch of the time would wear men’s clothing, which may or may not have a female cut – depends on if they can get that type of clothing (a brief mention is made that Royal’s clothing has a male cut to them). Specifically, in the 1940s, (yes I know this is 1939) that would involve some kind of suit and top hat. I do not recall mention of Royal having a hat (though there is/was mention of hooks for men to hang their hats on), but otherwise the clothing she wore would be typical for men of her region.

I’ll add one last historical note before moving on – while Royal is defying convention in 1939 rural Georgia by dressing as a man, if this book had been set one or two years later, in a city, then she’d have had a lot of company. It was a great era for women to be able to openly wear pants and strut around – maybe not strut, but it’s easier to go off to work in factories in pants.

Book Description - first off, it’s both somewhat inaccurate and, oddly given that, gives too much information. I do not wish to go too deep here. There are more examples but I’ll just lift one from the description: ‘The back roads of Georgia had been perfect for the dissemination of the much sought after illegal elixir until the local Baptist minister, Abraham Porter, decided to make prohibition his mission, and Royal the target of his evangelical wrath.’ - (1) moonshine, wasn’t actually specifically illegal. There’s a scene where this came up. It was the part where the people running moonshine didn’t want to pay tax on it. Moonshine in and of itself wasn’t illegal; it was running it without paying tax on it that was illegal. (2) Abraham Porter? That is not his name. Lovey, Reverend Abraham’s daughter, married a fellow with the last name of Porter. She goes around town telling everyone that she’s Lovey Porter. That does not suddenly make her father Abraham Porter. No, he is Reverend Abraham Edwards. Oddly, that isn’t what I had meant to focus on there; I just noticed the wrong name before I could get to what I wanted to get to. Edwards wasn’t directly targeting Royal – he was targeting the Duval family as moonshiners.

‘Lovey Porter, Abraham’s daughter, is the living embodiment of chaste beauty,’ – hmms. Calling a woman who has been married the ‘living embodiment of chaste’ seems wrong on so many levels. Chaste? Really?

Setting
I normally leave this to second or third in the section rotation, but I figure I need to leap onto this immediately. The year is 1939; the place is a rural town nearish to Atlanta Georgia. The town is located in Dawson County (and I only recall that part because a guy named Joe Dawson was courting Lovey Porter).

There’s a nice good ‘backwoods’ vibe to everything. There’s a vaguely magical flavor to everything, and no I don’t mean actual magic or that there’s fantasy involved. Just there’s a certain disconnect, at times, from reality. While at the same time, reality has a tendency to meanly reach in and make everything bloody. I’m being purposely vague.

Characters
There are more than two characters that inhabit this book, though only two have their points of view expressed.

Lovey Porter: Lovey grew up in the locality this story takes place, but she went away, briefly, to get a college education, and then moved to Chicago with her husband. Husband died in 1938. Lovey returned to live in her father’s house. She’s trying to figure out how to make her way in the world, feeling constrained and suffocating from convention – though she’s good at putting on the good/polite/dutiful daughter mask.
Connected people: Reverend Abraham Edwards (father to Lovey); Cal? (person who comes by occasionally to clean); various church members who occasionally thrust their way into the story. Briefly. Joe Dawson (tall, well-muscled fella courting Lovey).


Royal Duval - a woman who loves to wear men’s clothing, drink, chase women, and drive fast cars, Royal works as something of a moonshine delivery driver – which occasionally involves driving fast and getting shot at.
Connected people: Duke Duval (current head of the moonshining family, though he’s on his last legs, so to speak); Wade Duval (son to Duke, uncle to Royal, and a mean asshole); Ned Duval (son of Wade’s; best friend to Royal); Royal Duval’s mother (I forget if her first name is given); Grace (friend of Royal’s who gets into trouble and ‘must be saved’; both Grace (and her family) and Cal represent the ‘colored’ part of rural Georgia).

Plot
The book opens with Lovey feeling trapped in her house, so she goes for a late night stroll. On the roads. No one has driven past her father’s house in a good long while, so she figures its safe enough to walk out there. Until she finds out it isn’t.

Royal is testing a new potential route to drive on her moonshine deliveries, one with a newly graded/whatevered road. She roars up, slowing only so she can take a turn and . . . spots a figure in the roadway. She attempts to avoid running over the figure and ends up rolling her car.

Lovey sees the car roar up, and flip. She scrambles down to try to help the man in the car. Whereupon a comment is made that there are no boys here, unless Lovey brought some. Lovey helps Royal back to her place to patch her up. And Lovey learns that some women wear men’s clothing.

A relationship between Lovey and Royal develops – but it’s kind of hard, what with it being 1939 rural Georgia. And the Duval family and the Edwards family are kind of on opposite sides on certain matters (like how dry the county should be). This here is where I insert something I thought of while reading the book. There are aspects, obviously, involved when two women meet and get involved romantically. Not putting that aside, I’d like to note that Royal could actually have been a man and there still would have been massive problems involved in having a male Royal date Lovey. Issues that would need to be overcome/resolved regardless of gender. Course, then you take that on, the gender thing, and it seems hopeless, eh?

The problems of two women courting, or whatever word you wish to use, in 1939, causes massive issues. As does the ‘low character’ attached to the Duval name, at least as seen through the eyes of ‘good’ people like Abraham Edwards. Massive massive issues. Oh, and to help remind people that this is 1939 rural Georgia, there’s a few scenes here and there involving (1) blacks being treated badly; (2) women being treated poorly, as lower class citizens; one such event involving a black woman being felt up by some ‘good old white boys’.

Romance
It’s 1939. Two women find they have feelings for each other. One, as far as she knew, is a straight woman (here I’ll note the whole genre/topic/theme of straight women in lesbian fiction actually makes a certain amount of sense – if worked right – in a 1939 book). The other is a ‘player’. Obviously . . . . obviously nothing. The romance went a gentle, magical type direction. And somewhat faster than I kind of expected.

Still, problems pop up, what with it being 1939; one is the daughter of the local minister; the same one wanting to keep up appearances and so allows herself to be courted by a man (Joe Dawson). So, yeah, there are problems making this romance ‘work’.

Overall, though, the romance worked quite well. Despite certain things here and there, seemed to flow naturally.

Overall
One of my first, maybe first book updates noted how lovely the writing was in this book. For the most part that kept up throughout the book. Maybe not at whatever level it had to be to get me to actually make that comment initially, but still ‘lovely’.

I liked the book. It was an enjoyable read. Showed the frustrations of attempting to be a woman in the early 20th century, a lesbian, and a resident of a small rural county in the south. I’d recommend the book.

February 29 2016

Waiting in the Wings by Melissa Brayden

Waiting in the Wings
by Melissa Brayden
Pages: 288
Date: September 25 2013
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 25 to 26 2016


For one reason or another I either ramble/babble or 'leave a few notes' in Brayden books I've read. This'll be one of those 'leave a few notes' thingies.

This is a good solid book about two actresses/singers/dancers in the entertainment industry. A much better book than that other entertainment industry book featuring lesbians I read the other day by a different author.

Jenna McGovern is both the lead character and the only character with their point of view being expressed. She's something l like 24 when the book opens (based on a comment somewhere about her being 27, after a '3 years later' note), and just graduated from 'one of the most prestigious musical theater programs in the nation.' Her path to fame and fortune goes a rather unexpected path. She graduates, gets a call to go to an audition, and not only does she get the part, she gets a part she didn't even know she was applying for (instead of an ensemble role, she's going to be one of the main characters for the stage musical). A completely abnormal career path. Most struggle at least a little bit before some form of success. The only way she could have succeeded more is if she had gotten this role for the Broadway stage, not for the touring company of a Broadway show (that or be cast as the headliner, but that'd be going a step too far).

As they say, lucky in cards, unlucky in love. Well, acting isn't cards, and she isn't unlucky in love. For she, right out of the gate - so to speak, meets the love of her life (potentially, hey, she really dug her when she saw her on that teen show, so . . .) in the form of her costar and the lead of the show - Adrienne Kenyon. Adrienne & Jenna hit it off. Both (or was it just Adrienne? Oh, right, it was, because Jenna was disappointed when Adrienne used the phrase) wanted something more causal. Neither, though, could suppress the feelings their togetherness created. So, feelings started up.

Life is grand. Good role in a play. Lover. Friends. The only tough spot is that Jenna doesn't get along with Adrienne's friend (and ex) Sienna. But hey, that's okay. Life can't be all roses and puppy kisses. Then the book ended with no problems or issues.

Yeah. Right. This is where that 'lucky in [insert thing here]' 'unlucky in [insert thing here]' fits in.

Adrienne and Jenna are first separated for months when Adrienne is kicked off the show. What, she busted her knee (I believe the actual damage was a torn ACL or something like that) and it’s a song and dance show. If she can’t dance, she’s not needed. So, the two lovers are separated by many miles. But they try to keep up their relationship. Jenna continues on tour. Adrienne rehabilitates her knee. Time passes. They know they’ll be together again soon, for they have plans to live in New York (not necessarily in the same place, but both in New York) when the play ends.

Then Jenna gets a great job offer in Los Angeles. She’s torn. What should she do?

I’ve forgotten what the point of me doing a recap of the plot was for. I know there was a reason. And this appeared to be a good breaking off point. But now I don’t remember what my original point in doing that was. Hmms. Well, I’ll just pretend I know, and did whatever I wanted to do next, and then move on to:

So, Adrienne Kenyon is a big deal in this book. Former teen star (on a television show). Current stage star. Doesn’t have her own point of view in this book, though, so all of her thoughts and feelings have to be interpreted and revealed through others. Well, through Jenna, since she’s the one whose point of view appears. For the most part, I was okay with that issue – that one POV thingie. There was only one occasion I really wanted to be inside Adrienne’s head, but I suppose I, after all has been read, know why she made the decisions she did at the time she made them. I’m being vague on purpose.

A good solid book. Mostly good solid plot. Romance part had a few issues here or there. I actually liked Adrienne and Jenna. And the story. And stuff. So, why only 4 stars? Well, I didn’t love it so . . ..

February 26 2016

Lucky Loser by Yolanda Wallace

Lucky Loser
by Yolanda Wallace
Pages: 288
Date: November 1 2011
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 5.5 out of 5.0
Read: February 23 2016

My second book that I have read by Yolanda Wallace. I was both somewhat nervous about trying another book by this author, and excited to do so. Both feelings developed for the same reason – the first book I had read by Wallace had been one that I had read recently and had felt to be a rather solid 5 star book. And so, we turn to ‘Lucky Loser’, or, this book here.

[Inserted after the fact: I lost this review rather early on, so, I’ll note up here – I loved this book. A lot.]

It’s somewhat unfortunate that I ended up somewhat ill right around the time I had read this and roughly 5 other books (well, that’s awkward – I was ill-ish from about Friday of last week until, say, this morning). Unfortunate in that I could read, but doing things like writing reviews was a tougher thing to tackle. Though I still did, mostly. But for three books. And the first of those is from before this ill time. So . . . this is boring. Let’s get to the book.

This book opened in such a way that I almost beat it with a stick and ran screaming away from it. Or, in other words, it opened with the lead character (well, there are two points of view, but Sinjin Smythe’s portion seemed vaguely larger) being unable to keep from being wrapped around another woman’s finger. A nasty bitchy woman who loved to undermine her and was doing Sinjin a very bad turn – both career wise and relationship wise. I really didn’t want to read a book wherein the two somehow overcame the obstacles to find that they were each other’s true loves. That would have been really annoying and sickening. But, before I set the book on fire and never looked at it again, I reconfirmed something I thought I had seen in the books description. The name of the two women in the opening part did not match the name of the women in the book description that were supposed to be the main characters. And so . . . I put the lighter fluid away and actually gave the book a chance. Since the book was supposed to be about Sinjin Smythe and Laure Fortescue, not Sinjin Smythe and . . . um, whatever and however you spell Victoriaovich’s name (Viktoriya Vasilyeva).

A funny thing happened along the way. Despite the lowish rating this book enjoys, both in terms of overall rating, and in terms of just the average rating of those who are on my list of friends, I found myself rather drawn into this book and story.

To a limited extent, I think I know why there are certain books I like while others kind of dislike (or not love), books I kind of dislike (or not love) while others like/love them, and while there is this third category wherein everyone, including me, love the book.
That was an awkward sentence.

I’ll put what I originally wrote behind spoiler tags, not because it spoils anything in this specific book here, but because I do not yet have the ability to convey my specific thought I desired to convey, and probably won’t find that ability any time soon. I’m probably, in a way, reading into things a little. Though it is based on this book, and most other books I’d read recently (including that ‘Course of Action’ book – which will be the stand in for the second category of books (those that I vaguely dislike while others love). ‘Give Me A reason’ stands in as a representative of the third category (books everyone seems to love/or at least like). This book here, as in ‘Lucky Loser’, is the representative of the first kind of book (those that I love and others don’t – I mean, it did have a 3.55 rating before I read and rated it).

To a limited extent it boils down to emphasis. The main thread/theme of the book. For example, ‘Course of Action’ is a book about an actress and a rich woman with many businesses (for the sake of simplicity, I’ll call her the executive producer, since she is also that – of the film the actress wants to act in). There are ‘other stuff’ going on in the book, but the book is mostly a ‘relationship’ book – seen through the lens of having both internal and external pressure being brought to bear onto the relationship. The most important thing, basically is what I’m driving at, is the relationship. That and plenty and lots of sex. The ‘other story’ type stuff was there, just not as important. Personally I was looking for more of the ‘other stuff’ – including the stuff about the movie. Therefore I was vaguely disappointed. Of course I’m probably reading into what others liked and disliked the book. On the other hand – ‘Give Me A Reason’ had as one of the main themes this ‘relationship’ thing, but that was neither the main nor only theme. The book was a mixture of themes (relationships, family, PTSD, teaching, crime, sex, etc.). Hmms. I think I’m wasting mine and everyone else’s time. I could probably have written this review twenty years ago, but my brain doesn’t function any longer. Or something. Well, I supposed I’ll finish up since finishing up involves the book this review was supposed to be about anyway – the emphasis, the main point, of this book, ‘Lucky Loser’, is not the relationship, but . . . um . . . I don’t think it’s specifically ‘overcoming yourself’ but saying ‘sports’ seems limiting. Yeah, I’d probably be better just eliminating the last two paragraphs. Instead I’ll just put it behind spoiler tags.

The long and short of all that I hid behind the spoiler tag above is that this specific book has less of an emphasis on relationships, and more on an elusive ‘something else’. I won’t attempt to define this ‘something else’, though I suspect it has something to do with ‘sports’. I did have a thought while reading this book – using a sports theme can add tension to a relationship, the good and bad kind of tension, and potentially side step some of the somewhat overused clichés used in ‘other’ books (though there was an awkward moment there between the two). While at the same time side stepping one of the hurdles that a different type of romance book uses to add tension – external threats like big evil men/the environment/etc. Side stepping ‘knowing’ what’s going to happen. Like, say, reading a James Bond book – there’s lots and lots of danger, but it’s a James Bond book – the reader ‘know’s that whatever tension and danger exists, Bond will still triumph (in actuality, he doesn’t always, but I’m trying to make a point here, so let’s pretend ‘not dying’ is good enough). As opposed to a sports book. You can have a great riveting; uplifting sports book . . . and not know the ending. Know that, of course, x is going to do y. Sure, Rocky eventually won, but not in the first movie. Basically is what I mean.

Shesh, I keep adding these ‘extra’ little side things. I should have just done one of my reviews where I have ‘character’, ‘romance’, ‘plot’, etc. sections. Instead of me bouncing around like crazy.

The book opens with Sinjin Smythe watching as her girlfriend of the time (and that might not be the correct word to use – the girlfriend one) wins the US Open. Doesn’t help matters that Sinjin had been her opponent in the champion match, but those things happen. An important thing, though, is what happens afterwards – Sinjin and Viktoriya ending up in bed together that night. After Viktoriya basically saying that doubles tennis doesn’t matter (or words to that effect) – which is important because Sinjin is in the champion match for that one as well . . . tomorrow. But Viktoriya wants to celebrate her own singles championship right then and there – or at least that night. No matter that this will make Sinjin tired. And stuff. Because . . .even more than ‘doubles doesn’t matter’ is that Sinjin’s feelings don’t matter, what matters is what makes Viktoriya happy. Yeah, see, this is why I wanted to set this book on fire. Gah, I thought, No way I wanted to read something like this here. Luckily I had noticed something – the book moves from here to three years in the future. And is not about the bitchy Viktoriya and the easily lead (at least by Viktoriya) Sinjin.

Three years later Sinjin is attempting to recover from a mid-season knee treatment procedure. And is attempting to qualify for Wimbledon. I should probably note, now, that Sinjin is British (mother is from Nigeria, I believe, and I don’t know where father is from). This is important. Because Wimbledon, if you the reader of this review don’t know, is in England. And they haven’t had an English winner in a ton of years (I forget now how many is mentioned in the book, 34?). Of course they don’t really expect Sinjin to be the one to do it – at least not any more. She’s fallen so far down the standings she isn’t really on them any more (ranked in triple digits). And has to go through qualifying matches to get into the tournament. To which she loses. See, this is like Rocky! Okay, so this book was about 22 pages in length and is about how Sinjin failed to . . what’s this? Oh, someone pulled out, and so Sinjin is that ‘Lucky Loser’ that’s on the front of the book. A lucky loser because she lost her last qualifying match but was had done well enough that when someone pulled out; she was at the top of the list of those waiting for someone to pull out.

Also involved at this tournament is Viktoriya, but she’s both important and not important. Or, in other words, she isn’t the other point of view of the book. No, Sinjin has her point of view, as does Laure Fortescue, of France. Laure had had her own little burden to carry – in the similar manner had the weight of Wimbledon on her back (English – 34 years), Laure had the French title weighing her down. But she begins the Wimbledon portion of the book without that specific weight. She’s interested in winning Wimbledon, though, again.

The book proceeds following both women as the move through the tournament – both on and off the court. Helping each other get ready, and helping giving tips about competitors. (A point is made that the women’s side is more helpful and stuff, with exceptions (like Viktoriya) than the men’s side of tennis).

Well, I really messed up this review so I’ll just flee with a few closing thoughts. I, unexpectedly, loved the book and seriously considered some way to convey that fact more than just having it on a 5.5 shelf. I’m still seriously considering putting this even higher than that, even though there is nothing higher among my shelves, as of yet. Ah, this switch over to only being able to convey my rating in full stars (or artificial half stars). Long ago were the days when I could rate something 4.433 and be able to tell it apart from a book I rated 4.421. Basically, I mean, this book would have used to have been a solid 5 star book. But because I have to include everything I’d have rated 4.65 up to 5.0 in the past as 5 stars, I have to add stuff to show that a specific book is ‘more than’/’better than’ etc. *Shrugs* Just feels weird to have a book that I want to rate 4.65 stars up at the 5 star level; even worse if I put it down at the 4 star level (ah, where art thou, ½ stars?). 4.65 star books resting uneasily next to 5.00 star books on the 5.0 star shelf. Mmphs.

February 25 2016

Without a Front: The Producer's Challenge by Fletcher DeLancey

Without a Front: The Producer's Challenge
by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 461
Date: October 23 2015
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Chronicles of Alsea (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 23 to 24 2016

The seventh book that I’ve read by Fletcher DeLancey. Second one in the Chronicles of Alsea series. I’d actually read the first book in that series, ‘The Caphenon’, before I had read the five Star Trek Voyager books. Meaning that it’s been a month and roughly 20 days since I read the first book in this Alsea series.

I had initially planned to read the second book immediately after the first, but then I noticed that the Captain and her bonded mate weren’t in the second book. Which confused me since the first book seemed to have ended with them saying ‘bye for now, we’ll be back shortly.’ Well, however long shortly is, it’s not short enough to include them in this here book. Granted only sixth or so months have passed between books – I just thought more time was going to pass between books, for some reason. That time I just mentioned, the months, is internal chronological time. Not my time or publication time.

Right, so, this book here. It is six months later in story time and Lancer Andira Tal is suffering greatly. So much so that she ducks out on her own guards so that she can have some time by herself. It takes her friend and chief guard, Micah, to pull a blaster on her for Tal to realize that there are other options available to her. So, after a lot of work is done to make it possible, Tal goes on vacation for a short while.

Why is she suffering? She has a ton of people pounding her regarding that new technology that she had gotten from the Caphenon (well through the treaty with the Protectorate). And the various castes are not agreeing with each other or with Tal about the pace of change. In addition, Tal is suffering from an unexpected source – separation. She had made it about a month operating ‘relatively well’ regarding that separation, since the departure of the Caphenon, but then communication got reestablished and adversely impacted her. Adversely impacted because she had shared, intimately, with a tyree connection – and it’s almost like her own tyree mate was dead/gone/etc. Doesn’t help that she, in addition to that, actually did develop a love for one of the pair. Which was further not helped when she learned that the other would have been agreeable to seeing what might have developed if she hadn’t been a part of a tyree. And so, suffering.

Tal, Micah, and a bunch of guards visit the beach. Run around, kick the sand, etc. During one of her jaunts around, Tal runs into a woman and they strike up a nice little relationship. Is she the one? Has Tal found someone for herself? Well, things are complicated, because Tal hadn’t been running around as herself – she’d been in disguise. And failed to reveal who exactly she actually is before things went too far and the woman got pissed at her.

So. That happened. And Tal had not, in fact, ‘found her one’. She’s somewhat better, though, from having had a vacation. So, back into the political combat of her life.

The book is subtitled ‘The Producer’s Challenge’. Am I actually ever going to mention said challenge? Well, just like me taking a while to get to it, the book itself took a while to get to this challenge. As I’d mentioned, the various castes were fighting/bickering/arguing over the new technology, and the pace of interdiction. As part of this, Tal meets with various delegates. One such delegation involves the Producers caste. After returning from her vacation she has a meeting with the delegates. But immediately calls into question the appearance of one member of the delegation. Apparently that woman, Salmon Hol-Opah (there’s a good chance I’m misspelling her first name), was taking the place of another member ‘because he is ill’ (he isn’t ill). One thing leads to another and Salmon makes some comment or another, or some words occurred that lead to ‘the challenge’. The challenge consists of Hol-Opah hosting Tal for a month (or was it nine-days? I forget now; there was some argument over the length of the challenge, but I believe it ended up being a month). Thereafter, Hol-Opah would be hosted, in turn, by Tal. Hence the second part of Without a Front being subtitled ‘The Warrior’s Challenge’.

This was an interesting book. More interesting, actually, than I had expected. And the romance that occurs, and yes one does occur beyond that vacation fling one I mean, seemed quite good. Unique ‘relationship troubles’ occurred that was both innovative and not stupid.

I liked roughly 95 to 99% of the book. The part I didn’t like? Well, two parts actually. Somewhere near the end, but not specifically the end, the author suddenly switched from ‘showing’ to ‘telling’. It’s as if she knew that she would need to ‘wrap things up’ shortly and didn’t have room to ‘do it right’. Show she speed things up by ‘telling’ things. Then the ending returned to the more accepted ‘showing’ style of writing. And immediately ran into the second part I didn’t like. The abrupt ending to this specific book. Lives are literally hanging in the balance. Or however that’s worded. Right, but that’s okay-ish and didn’t detract from the rating.

An enjoyable book. My understanding is that this book here used to be combined with ‘The Warrior’s Challenge’ and be called Without a Front – and stand on its own without the Caphenon book. Since that is the case, I’ll note that there is a good enjoyable story in this specific book here, though it kind of ends in a cliff-hanger, and – while it can be read without the first book in the series, there are many issues that will be much easier to understand if the first book is read before this book here. And so, with all that, I say that this was a good almost solid second book to a series. Almost solid because of its cliff-hanger ending.

February 25 2016

Course of Action by Gun Brooke

Course of Action
by Gun Brooke
Pages: 296
Date: June 1 2005
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 22 2016

just some quick notes. both because late at night and because one of my hands has kind of died on me (as in, it all numbed and stuff) so can't write/type.

My second book by this author. I read this one next, after the one I loved, because of two reasons - (1) first book released; (2) involves Hollywood and stuff like that.

I had several problems with the book. Some of the action/reaction/stuff seemed over the top. I didn't need to read yet another book involving a straight woman who suddenly realizes that she's a lesbian (at least for one other woman) - though that one's on me. Some of the chemistry between the two mains seemed forced. Mind you there were some rather nice moments where they really seemed to click, but there were also a lot of moments where they 'felt' as 'plastic' to me as the 3d avatars that occasionally inhabit Brooke's covers. I'm not being very exact there. Maybe I can be later when I've more than one hand and it's not past midnight.

Plus - there were scenes that occurred that didn't work for me for many reasons. There seemed to be an emphasis on how much Carolyn needed to be shown to be trustworthy, etc., to overcome her 'reputation', while, many occasions, it was Annelie who acted like a massive bitch.

There were many good moments. It was . . . for the most part, readable. They had kind of a fucked up relationship though. heh. They said that the loved each other like at the drop of a hat; they seemed to end up living together 'temporarily' very easily. And . . . yet they still acted surprised when the other would do something or other - like say 'darling'. That was . . weird.

For all the burden placed on Carolyn to break down the barriers . . . . there sure wasn't a fuck lot down to show why there were barriers. (1) Carolyn had a reputation; (2) she apparently was straight; (3) Anneliee was considering her for a role. All of these create barriers that needed to be broken, but not the solid walls that seemed to put all burden on Carolyn's side. Maybe I missed it. I know Carolyn was married twice before (see: reputation). But I don't exactly recall much in the way of past relationships being mentioned regarding Annelie. Beyond the 'are they gold diggers or do they actually care for me' level of history. Again, I'm probably missing something, or forgetting something.

I will leave with a final note: It's odd, but I actually liked the side characters better than the mains. Mostly the Australians, and Jem (or whatever her name was). Jared was a dick. Grey was an agent and acted like an agent (i.e., something approaching being a dick). So, obviously enough, I'm being both narrow in which side characters I liked better, while being vague about actually pinning them down and noting their names.

February 23 2016

Big Nate: Thunka, Thunka, Thunka by Lincoln Peirce

*I received this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review.*

Big Nate: Thunka, Thunka, Thunka
by Lincoln Peirce
Pages: 176
Date: March 1 2016
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Series: Big Nate

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 21 2016

Back when I used to read comic strips in the paper (and read newspapers, gah, I can still feel the print transfering and smearing onto my hands *shudders*), Nate was one of the comics I read. I have probably a good many of the collections that have been put out, just not in the collected form - just by reading the strips in the paper. I mention all that because I appear to only actually have one book by Peirce in my catalog marked as read. Odd, that.

No matter. I was offered the opportunity to plunge myself back into this universe, and I took leapt at the chance. And do what I sometimes do - the review as notes taken as I read:

hehe - well, the first strip is funny. So, so far I'm glad I got the chance to read this.
Nate: You're a celebrity. All over town you're known as "That guy who hands out lame halloween candy." - hehe - ack. hehe. See, I'm already giggling, then the punchline came and I actually laughed outloud. Not sure children would necessarily get it, though. Maybe, not sure.

hehe - some relatively mundane strips followed by one that made me laugh out loud again. Good good.

Okay then. A mix of relatively flat comic strips and some rather funny. *nods* Several that made me laugh a little too loudly.

'You might have a future as a mimie' - hehehehe

Bah, I was about to mention another funny line. But I can't keep putting them her, what'll other people do? No, I not be bad. So then, imagine this line here [redacted] - it was hilarous.

Dang, this thing keeps making laugh loudly. hmms. Who would have known, eh? Granted, part of this goes back to my first paragraph wherein I noted that I used to read this comic in the papers. Well, I haven't in a while so 99.9% of these are new to me. Therefore their humor is fresh and exciting.

Shesh. I just keep bursting with laughter.

Oh. I suppose I should mention something about what the book is about. Nate is a student at a school, P.S. something or other. Several reoccurring characters appear, like the teacher he hates, the girl he fancies, the girl he hates, the people who are friends with him, the big sister, the balding fat dad, the dog who is in love with a cat. A cat. (No, I'm not saying that in shock or anything, I'm including the cat in the list of reoccurring characters).

Various story lines are followed, Nate and his attempts to keep from getting detention, his non-athletic/nonmusical father who keeps trying to get involved athletically or musically; Nate's whining about Jenny and how she is with another guy and not him. The attempt to write a fight song for the school. The attempt to get a sponsor for the baseball team (Nate visits several places, including a mention of visiting Victoria's Secret, to find this sponsor).

hehehe - oops sorry, here I am trying to break away from rambling by actually writing stuff, and I got interrupted by a really funny bit. Sorry about that. I'll try to contain my laughter (I'd mention what it was that was funny, but I've done that too often and do not wish to spoil to book).

Ah man, it's over. I'm super sad now because the comic strip collection suddenly ended. By the way, apparently this collection is in some way connectd to 'amp! COMICS for kids'. To which I note: (1) I'm not a kid so I do not know if kids will enjoy the comic. It's possible. I know one or two punchlines might, possibly, be over their head. Depending on age. And general interests. (2) non-kids, as in humans and not the young of goats, should probably not be adversely impacted by seeing that 'comics for kids' on the label. Becasue it can be read by adults. At least one. Me. And I'm almost really old. But not yet. Hmm, if I joined the military I'd already have 20 years in. Right, got distracted there.

I recommend this book to one and all. Who like humor. That includes this humor being presented by way of a youngish child.

February 21 2016

Loveday by Kristy Flowers

Loveday
by Kristy Flowers
Pages: 267
Date: June 30 2015
Publisher: Self
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 2 out of 5
Read: February 21 2016

My first story by this author. Another adult choose your adventure. Well, 'Interactive pick your path'. Not sure if it's choose your adventure yet.

There tend to be two types of 'interactive fiction'. The kind that has lots of 'choose A, B, C, or D', and the kind that has maybe three choices left up to the reader in the whole book. I prefer the many choices version. Guess I'll know shortly which kind I'm facing.

Okay, first off: yay, the 'you' is female. Secondly - historical fiction mixed with mystery/revenge/graphic sex. Let the fun begin . . . or something.

Hmms. So, not a 'you choose'. At least, so far, not a you book. Following, I am, Lena Sherwood. At least in the prologue. Maybe it become you later?

Wait. This is Victorian historical fiction. 1837 to 1901. First car in England - 1895. One of the people in the story was 'waiting by the car'. So, this would have to be set at some point between 1895 and 1901.

Right, so - the Blackwood family was expanding, aggressively. The Sherwood family was in their way. So, they invited them over and killed them. All except for Lena Sherwood and her brother. Saved by the driver, Thomas, those two. Who had taken, recently, in slipping into Lena's bed.

So far certain awkwardness in wording, and spelling. Using 'safe' instead of 'save.' Etc. Really really awkwardly worded. Bah.

Gah. So bloody wordy. And before I even got anywhere, despite everything that's happening, I kind of hate Lena. Was that the intention? Possibly.

So, my first choice came up. My choice was 'Continue'. Just that. Hmm. Yay? Naturally I choose . . . continue.

And now I hate Lena even more. Yeah, this is more of the second type of interactive novel. I'm not in control of anything. And now, trapped as I am, I'm forced to watch the moronic Lena make out the Butler so that she can get a position she stupidly made herself overqualified for. bah.

Ah, my second time able to make a 'choice'. This time there's actually options. Three options. Observe one of the three Blackwoods living at the estate. I decided to investigate the woman first.

Hmms. (1) Lena has mentioned that she's visited the place before; (2) her brillant undercover work consists of dying her hair and changing her name. hmms.

Bah, my distast for Lena continues. Also: "Lady Edith...do you do this all buy yourself?" - the mispellings keep pulling me out of the story. (As I'm sure my own mistakes are pulling people out of the review).

Third choice. Continue working with Edith, or go bug the other two. Naturally I continue with Edith.

Yeah, another choice. "click here to continue". Do I choose to click, or do I . . . stop reading the book? Oh, what should I do, what should I do . . ..

The sex is annoying. The choices are few. And I have no control. I'm bored.

'How unusual. I didn’t notice it yesterday, but Lady Edith was already working in the garden before I even came. This meant that she had woken up even earlier than the servants - how unusual. It wasn’t uncommon for members of nobility to sleep until noon.' (Kindle Locations 1981-1982). - This paragraph makes no sense to me. I just read the day before. And Lena/Summer working with Edith in the garden. And finding her there. Working. In the morning. Long before noon. And dirty. And stuff.

I was rendered speechless by what she said. I could have never imagined for a lady to say such words. (Kindle Locations 1985-1986). - this book is annoying me. Deeply.

Yeah, this was an annoying book.

February 21 2016

Lure of the Sirens: A Sci Fi Choose Your Own Erotic Story by Callista Hawkes

Lure of the Sirens: A Sci Fi Choose Your Own Erotic Story
by Callista Hawkes
Pages: 476
Date: April 22 2015
Publisher: Self
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 20 to 21 2016

My second story by this author. First one was something like a 'parody', or an erotic version of a James Bond novel. This one specifically states that it was 'Inspired by Firefly, Serenity, Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars'.

So . . . let's see what we see, eh?

Story opens with 'you' entering a 'smoky, grimy, neon lit interior of ... [a] bar.' You are in/at at asteroid mining colony in the Altair system. Your ship is named 'the Eclipse.'

Hmms. And, yet again, the 'you' is a male. mmphs. Oh well.

Huh. Most of these 'choose your own adventure' stories have some ability to 'guess' what'll come next. The first batch of choices are just different types of drinks, or asking for information. mmphs. I decide to ask for information. Which leads to me mentioning that I'm looking for work and being tossed over to a guy named Crassus - the wealthiest Roman of all time. But wait, this one isn't a Roman, but some kind of lizard. Oops, there we go. I said 'some kind', now I learn that he has a 'iguana-like head'. So, iguana.

Ah. Getting a job to make a trip in three days instead of 'weeks'. Interesting.

So, apparently on your spaceship is a hot redheaded woman with green eyes. One who likes looking at you with contempt. hmms. 'I really should reprogram you Vanessa' . . . oh, some kind of robot or like. hmms.

Hmm. The sex scenes, at least the choices, are getting repetitive. Wait, what? I'm in the first one, how can they be repetitive? Well, repetitive if I include the prior book. My choices are 'bend her over and take her' or 'have her suck your cock'; my, where else have I been limited to those two choices? Oh! I know! The other book I read by this author.

By the way, since learning that Vanessa is a droid, I'm having these vague 'eww' feelings. Imagining it's the guy fucking C-3PO. eww. Yeah, I just can't do it. Back tracking to 'no, I'm not fucking the machine!' choice.

So, back to leaving the astroid colony. Whereupon I immediately deviate course to answer a distress call. Now I know I'll end up frozen by Jabba the Hutt *nods*.

So far the sex is kind of boring. Odd, that. I found it mildly entertaining in the other book. Maybe more than mildly.

I hate when there's a stupid choice that's made and I've no way to alter it. I mean, this is a 'choose your own adventure', right? bah. Tis stupid to split up on a creepy huge ship.

Hmms. Now it's turned into Space Balls.

Okay, now I've gone down every path. Sad to say, but I liked the other book more than this one. Still, it was interesting, even exciting in places. So, still a good read.

February 21 2016

Fowl Language: I Used to Be Cool and Do Cool Things by Brian Gordon

Fowl Language: I Used to Be Cool and Do Cool Things
by Brian Gordon
Pages: 128
Date: March 22 2016
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Series: Fowl Language
Webcomic address: http://www.fowllanguagecomics.com/?pw_highlight_code=74798

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 20 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review.*

My first book by this author. I was looking around Netgalley to see what they had available to be 'read now' and spotted this book here in the humor area. Glanced at a few reviews over on Goodreads - which included several pictures from the book - and found the pictures humorous. So I selected this book to read.

Like the last book I attempted to read through Netgalley, I ended up starring at the provided file with confusion. Well, took me a while, but I've finally figured how to open a acsm file. See, it kept trying to load in the Adobe PDF thingie already on my computer. But that specific one couldn't read acsm files. So . . . . eventually I found something that read acsm files, downloaded it. Then realized that I had downloaded the program to my phone. Which didn't help me any. Eventually I figured out how to download Adobe Digitial Editions to my PC so now I can actually read this here book. Yay me. So then, the book itself.

First off I'll note that I've read several parenting/family themed comics/books, which this book here falls within, but am not myself a parent. I do have a nephew, so . . ..

From the introduction: 'I remember thinking that this crap was WAY less magical than I had been promised.' - hmm, confusing that. Having an actual human 'suddenly' appear where no human existed before - that's magical. Parenting? Who said parenting was magical?

Huh. I see now. Apparently everyone but him in his social circle had 'easy babies' but he had a 'hard baby'. Then he found out his experience wasn't, in fact, the sole experience of having a 'hard baby' out there. I see now why he got confused, if his social circle had magical babies and he didn't. Hmms. Magical babies. Odd concept that. If I had something like that in my life, not that I would (as in, I know my own genetics, a magical baby ain't coming out of me), I'd think that my baby had been replaced by an alien - or someone else's kid. If, I mean, the baby was magically easy. (yeah, I know, he actually concludes that his social circle were lying, not that there were magical babies out there).

Heh. Well, that bodes well. I moved from the introduction to the first actual comic and burst out in laughter. Odd, I am, but still. I laughed. Yay, my brain thinks.

'Who hates naps?!' - hehehe

'stupid genetics' - hehehe

hmms. I might accidentally die by laughter.

hehehe - 'Why I don't get invited to baby showers anymore' - hehehe

ha-hahe - 'evidently I was friggin' Hitler in a former life.'

hmms. Okay, some just flew over my head. Like the Advent Calendar one.

hehehehehaha - 'not a single piece of your Halloween candy was poisoned...'

'Three'. heh

'I don't wanna be a tree stump!' hehehe

Okay, I need to stop randomly laughing at stuff in this review. Needless to say, there's a lot of very funny stuff going on in this here book. It's funny, it is.

'But we're outside!!!' hehehehe. oops, was supposed to stop doing that, I was.

hehehehe - 'Holy crap, I'm raising a politician.'

This is/was a really really funny little comic book. All should read. *nods* Don't have to be a parent, I know, because I'm not a parent and I laughed really loudly.

February 20 2016

Agent 69: Stroken, Not Stirred by Callista Hawkes

Agent 69: Stroken, Not Stirred
by Callista Hawkes
Pages: 371
Date: November 26 2015
Publisher: Self
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 20 2016

Been a while since I read one of these erotic interactive stories. This one here is the first story I've read by this author. Let's see how good (or not) it is, eh?

Okay, so, I'm a British secret agent named James Hazard (eww, I'm a boy). So, going in I already know there's one strike against the book - it's a 'you' type book, and the main character is male. And I'm not male.

Okay, book opens with me, or 'you', falling through the sky towards the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Luckily I have a parachute.

Okay, so, I've read enough to know what the first mission consists of - a 'Captain Frost' has (1) kidnapped the daughter of the USA President, and (2) stolen a nuclear submarine. Unable to use his own agents, fearing as he does insiders helping Frost, the president contacted the Brits. And the British PM sent you (well, someone over there sent you, I assume it wasn't literally the PM who messaged you to go. um. me. Messaged me? bah, 'you' books).

Okay, the first choice offered to me is odd. Maybe I missunderstood and I'm not supposed to try to save the president's daughter? bah, back to reading I go.

Well, that little adventure with the president's daughter was both unexpected and actually interesting. Interesting the story I found by always choosing to 'be a gentleman'. Course, that was just the opening scene. Not the whole story. Back to reading I go.

Well, based on everything up to here (opening mission, walking into a serect agent headquarters, seeing a pretty young secretary outside, flirting with her, before your meeting with N) - this is obviously a parody of 007.

Huh. And then the opening with N is almost exactly like the opening with M in the Bond series when M critized Bond's sexism and stuff. Weird, that. This is moving out of the realm of parody into the realm of plagarism.

I keep dodging the chooses which would lead to sex (what, sleep with the boss? eww), but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to flirt with Miss Meriweather (aka Miss Moneypenny). And a good time was had by all. So to speak. *nods*

Right. On to Vienna. And me doing spy stuff. To meet my 'From Russia with Love' Russian intelligence collegue.

Hmms. First time I had to retrace my steps. I like following a single story line to conclusion. Strange how easy the mission/story line ended. Ah well. Back a step and continue, eh?

“Surely not.” Hakan says. “Hugo Kruger is something of a philanthropist,donating millions to develop the townships in his native Johannesburg and elsewhere. He has been lauded throughout the world as a generous humanitarian. Perhaps someone else within his organisation.” (Kindle Locations 1867-1868). - um . . . it's long been the case in fiction and nonfiction that criminals, not all but most, put on a face of 'doing good'. So it always surprises me when this stupid little dynamic pops up over and over again. 'Oh, no! It can't be the super rich guy who likes giving money to charity!' (course by this logic, Bill Gates is a criminal mastermind, but let's not go there shall we?).

Well, it's all done. This actually was a lot more entertaining that other stories I've read that have attempted to add graphic sex to Bond stories.

February 20 2016

Raised by Wolves by Bridget Essex

Raised by Wolves
by Bridget Essex
Pages: 167
Date: January 27 2016
Publisher: Rose and Star Press
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 18 2016

This is my 12th work by this author.

Essex tends to write about 3 or 4 things. (1) Most common, at least in what I’ve read, maybe not in everything written, would be works involving werewolves; (2) works involving knights; (3) works involving something else (i.e., angels); and (4) contemporary lesbian romance. That’s going by what I’ve read. Then there’s that 5 work series involving vampires that I haven’t read. I don’t recall if vampires have popped up in the works I’ve read by her. Well, a book titled ‘Raised by Wolves’ and involving a werewolf would fall directly in line with the above, right? Well yes and no.

The book does, in fact, involve a werewolf. The book, though, is somewhat different from the norm. At least in that, as far as I recall, the main focus of the book involves the actual werewolf. One of Essex’s common themes involves lesbian woman who dream of fantasy, of a shining knight coming to be their knight, of werewolves, and the like. Well that turns up in this book as well. The difference is the main character. In the other works, the main character is that lesbian woman dreamer. Here the main character is the werewolf. And the dreamer is the other woman in the relationship. This may or may not be a switch – recall, if you will, my mentioning of the 5 book vampire series (and that I’ve not read everything else written by this author), and that I don’t know what the dynamic is in those works. So, it’s just a switch in perspective from what I’ve read.

So. Becca Swift was raised by wolves. I was going to say ‘I don’t know why, but that made me think of stories of children being raised by wolves, like the she-wolf who raised Romulus and Remus (the brothers who, legend says, built Rome)’ but then I recalled why I was vaguely surprised that the main woman of the story was the werewolf instead of the non-wolf -> because of what I wrote in the prior paragraph. The main tends to be the dreamer, not the dream. Or, um, something like that.

Becca Swift is 33 and enjoys her life. Even if it involves living in a crappy apartment with a menial retail job. And her lack of lifelong companions. She likes her life set up that way. The problem is, though, that her mother rather dislikes basically everything about how Becca is living her life (except for the lesbian thing, she seems okay with that). Easy enough solution, right? Cut the bitch out of your life. Except, of course, (1) that love thing; (2) family; (3) mama Swift is the pack alpha with all that entails with being alpha. So, for many reasons, she can’t cut the bitch out of her life (what, a female dog is a bitch, is a female wolf not a bitch? Not sure, don’t particularly want to look it up now).

And so, after another session with her mother, during which mama Swift took every opportunity to loudly and verbally abuse her daughter, Becca is pissed and trying to kill a punching back. In comes beloved family member and cousin Rob. Stuff occurs; point though is that Rob points her towards a particular book store and a particular new worker at said book store. A way to clear her mind, or something like that.

And so, with reluctance, Becca pulls on her leathers and hops on her motorcycle and . . . wait, sorry, I just kind of expected this to be the next thing to occur. No, she gets on the bus. She’s too poor to have a motorcycle, I assume.

Becca makes it to that bookstore, sniffs out (literally) where the new worker is in the store, is enchanted and Becca meets the long legged blonde haired Loren. They appear to be taken with each other.

And so the two most important people in the story have met. Becca and Loren. Now it’s just a case of whether or not it’ll just be a one-night stand, or more. Oh, and the part wherein Becca’s a werewolf. And Loren’s a human.

It’s a neat story. I actually got quite into it. I was having fun, enjoying myself and then I kind of stopped. During one particular scene I realized the story was going to go a particular direction I didn’t want it to go, and I was right. It went that direction. And then the book abruptly ended after that. Still, I enjoyed the book so . . ..

Oh, and for those keeping track, there’s plenty of graphic sex that occurs.

February 19 2016

Destiny Abounds by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane & Shei Darksbane

Destiny Abounds
by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane & Shei Darksbane
Pages: 342
Date: September 10 2015
Publisher: Darksbane Books
Series: Starlight Saga (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.45 out of 5.0
Read: February 17 to 18 2016

To start with – if it hadn’t been for the fact that I had already read, and enjoyed, every other book written by this pair of authors (not including a short story, which I haven’t read yet), I probably wouldn’t have given this book here a third chance. Yes, third. First doesn’t really count – it was just a causal like look over the book after completing the second book by this pair. Second one though – that one counts, it does. Since I started, and then fled the book. I just . . .. Well, that was longish ago. Third time was this time so I’ll just relay that one.

To a large extent, it probably would have been better if the book had started with any other character instead of the captains. I hadn’t actually realized it until stumbling through it and getting to other points of view, but the first, the captain’s point of view is that way on purpose. It’s off putting and annoying as hell though. Part of the reason why I didn’t immediately ‘get it’ is all the ‘errors’. Like the repeated use of words and phrases in, the supposedly, ‘non-point of view’ section. As in times when the phrase ‘it was’ was repeated. ‘The dog it was it was very large.’ (not an exact quote) or times when the word ‘the’ was oddly used. Mostly, though, it was the very unnaturally disjointed flow of the captains sections. I literally had to read the first page about 12 times just to figure out what the bloody hell was being said. It wasn’t that it involved difficult words, or the like, it was just so bloody weirdly worded. Took me getting to other points of view and seeing how smoothly, for the most part, those sections were, then getting back to the captains and again encountering the rough disjointedness of the captains to finally realize that her sections were that way on purpose. Once I realized that, everything began to become easier to read.

Right, so. I probably would have noticed, hmm . . I’m fairly certain I would have noticed . . . the similarities between this book and ‘Firefly’ (the 2002 show that was on Fox briefly). Well, at least vaguely. For the most part, only one of the characters has something of a 1 for 1 match. All the rest are vague. To a large extent, from the little given on the TV show, and in this book, Inara Serra (the ‘companion’ on the show), and Kalah Sirrah appear to be roughly similar characters. The rest, as noted, are mostly pushing puzzle pieces around, and pounded some pieces where they probably don’t really go.

Also on the ship, Branwen Hawke, Captain of Destiny Abounds, has some rough similarities with Captain Mal Reynolds of Firefly. Well, both had military backgrounds that both were trying to put behind them. Both captains of a starship. And . . . that’s basically it in similarities. Not really similar, eh? Oh, and both using ships uncommon – though the Firefly was a cargo ship much outdated to the time Captain Mal flew it, while the Destiny Abounds being a rather technologically advanced spaceship.

Prisoner 286 has some vague similarities to a combination of two Firefly characters - Jayne Cobb/River Tam character. 286 has some super advanced fighting skills that seem kind of magical, somewhat like River, has some vaguely anti-social tendencies somewhat like River (though more how, at times, River might suddenly go from looking like she’s sleeping to running around ripping things apart); but also has the ‘doesn’t give a shit’ vibe that Cobb has, is as talkative as Cobb is, and is something of a bully like Cobb.

I was thinking Zimi must match up with Dr. Simon Tam, from Firefly, but then I thought more about it and thought that I might just be going for ‘medic on Destiny Abounds’ and ‘doctor on Firefly’ as basis. Like several others, Zimi appears to be a combined character. Fitting some of Shepherd Books gibberish and . . . gibberish into her character, combined with the medical part from Dr. Simon Tam (though Simon was a top medical professional, while Zimi is more self-taught –still, Zimi is much more skilled than you’d expect for someone basically self-taught), and the fighting skills of Simon (somewhat ineffectual (at least during one fight), desiring to do the right thing but might accidentally shoot one of the crew while trying to shoot an invader; so unlike Shepherd Book, who gave off the vibe of a pacifist type, but actually had been a skilled intelligence officer at some point).

The pilot of Destiny Abounds, Merlo, has an obvious match-up with the pilot on Firefly, Wash. Merlo, though, seems a lot more military than Wash (though both had/have military training). I’d been thinking that Merlo might be some combo of Zoe Washburne and Wash Washburne, though only because Merlo seems to want to find the military option in every situation, while Zoe was always ready for the military option, though not necessarily leading with it. Truth be told, other than having military training and being super good at piloting, there really isn’t that good of a match between Merlo and Wash (or Zoe). I mean, Wash liters stuff like dinosaurs figurines all over the place, while Merlo has no use for debris. They are barely similar. Just job title.

Also, somewhat obviously, the engineers on both ships vaguely match up. Vaguely. Kaylee is kind of socially awkward while being a brilliant engineer, like Mr. Leonard. But Mr. Leonard seemed scared of his own shadow, while Kaylee seemed to be more of the socially awkward, rather roll around in grease fixing things than bouncing around a party type.

And, right. Quite frankly, there’s a big chance I’d not have tried to ‘smush’ the two things together. This book and Firefly, if I hadn’t seen it in reviews. Hell, I could probably attempt to ‘mush’ any old show with the book. Like, say, Stargate. Branwen is kind of like Jack O’Neill – military veteran, kind of sits back watching the others do their thing, but ready to step in at a moment’s notice to take command. And, um, Merlo . . . um . . is kind of like the early brash Major Carter before she got seasoned. And . . . um . . . Mr. Leonard is like Sgt. Harriman, there to keep things running, but is on the side, watching – Mr. Leonard because he’s really really shy and fragile like, and Gary Jones because he’s a bit player with a few lines of dialogue (though in 112 episodes) …. Yeah, okay, I can’t match up Stargate with this book. Hehe.

Well, got distracted there with my little Firefly diversion. There are at least 5 points of view shared in this book. The main ones are Branwen Hawke, Merlo, Kala Sirrah Nazai, and Prisoner 286. The fifth involves a few times that Mr. Leonard gets to pop his head up glance around, meerkat-like. Hmms. There’s only one other passenger/crew member – Zimi Praff. I can’t recall if Zimi has any time taking over things.

The plot, to a large extent, seems designed to show how each crew member ended up aboard the Destiny Abounds starship, including how the ship itself got its name (it opens the book nameless). At first the ship consisted of Branwen as captain and Mr. Leonard as engineer. However they ended up on or with the ship is not mentioned.

Branwen Hawke is the captain but doesn’t really know much about technology. Apparently really old, but she dodges the age question as well as she can. Everyone else, unless I’m forgetting something, get described as being ‘young’ – many seeming to be described as being around 17 years of age or thereabouts (not sure why the book ended up being overrun with kids, but . . . whatever; though these are mostly observations made by other people gazing upon the characters, not internal thoughts or overt conversation – the young age, I mean). Mr. Leonard, as mentioned, is the engineer. He gives off a vaguely ‘I’m actually a robot pretending to be a human’ vibe, but the hints that are dropped probably leads me in a different direction. There is a super advanced civilization mentioned in the book on a planet. No one lives in this civilization except for children and either an A.I. or with A.I.’s. The artificial intelligent critters guide and protect the children. There is a relatively high likelihood, as expressed in the book, that the children are children because they had been regressed – had been adults but they themselves did something to themselves to move them back to the age of children – because of how fun it is to be a child with no responsibility, etc.. Well, the hints that are dropped seemed to indicate that Mr. Leonard might be somehow connected to that civilization. I might be reading into things, though so . . .. Either a kid who wanted to ‘play’ and explore – and therefore allowed himself to grow to adult size, or an A.I. from this civilization.

Very quickly the ship adds a pilot – Merlo. Quickly as in almost immediately after the book opens. Merlo is a young woman who has spent most of her live being trained to be a pilot and is therefore super advanced in piloting. She has also been trained in military matters. Most other training, unless related to piloting, has either not occurred, or been of lesser importance. Mostly not occurred.

The three member crew bump around the ‘clusters’ carrying things here and there until they reach a specific planet. On this planet they need to deliver some medicine. While delivering the medicine they are attacked. Injuries occur, etc. etc. (I don’t want to give everything away here), and they end up being worked on by a medic. Named Zimi Praff. Shortly thereafter Zimi joins the crew.

Meanwhile, as the ship has bounced around, Prisoner 286 and Sirrah have been having their own story unfold (as in, they are traveling down the same story path, while the ship crew is on a separate path). Eventually 286 & Sirrah’s paths cross that of Destiny Abounds and they board as passengers. Because Destiny Abounds is super quick.

And so, once everyone is on board the ship darts around speedily doing the business required by Kala Sirrah. Much time in space occurs. Some on planet. Battles occur, some relatively massive. All planet side (a comment is made by Merlo while gazing upon, the as yet named Destiny Abounds, about how it looked like (a) a super advanced ship, (b) that had no obvious weapons; since that comment was made by Merlo who had no clue about that ship, or its capabilities, the question about whether or not the ship actually had weapons or not is still up in the air – weirdly).

Enjoyable book. Sucked me in, spit me out, and now I write this, whatever this is, here. Just like the other series I’ve read by this author pair, books and short stories are already named and mentioned to be releasing soon. Soon was last year. Something occurred which adversely impacted their writing plans, so I’ve no idea if this first book in a series will actually end up being an orphan book. Three books and two short stories all got released in 2015 – normally I’d not make comments like I made except for the fact that they had made this website that seemed to be tracking their work and putting up blog posts. Everything kind of froze, though, with no new information, and the progress bar on the writing locked at a certain number (19%?) for something like six or so months.

Regardless, I look forward to further adventures in this series and in the Dakota Shepherd series.

February 18 2016

NPCs by Drew Hayes

NPCs
by Drew Hayes
Pages: 234
Date: May 12 2014
Publisher: Self
Series: Spells, Swords, & Stealth (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: February 16 2016

This is the first book I’ve read by this author.

I’m not really sure what to write about this book. I was looking for something relatively light and fluffy with the potential of humor. This book popped up on my radar, I noticed it was on Kindle Unlimited, so I tried it.

I was actually unexpectedly surprised, as opposed to expectedly surprised I suppose. Hmms. Let’s see. Bah.

I was actually surprised by how much deeper this book turned out to be on a certain level. Sure, it’s still mostly fluffy, but there were elements I did not expect to find that made things seem more real. This, in its way, is the point.

Right, so, anyone not read the book description? Well, in case you didn’t: Four adventures roll into town. Visit a tavern. Drink some mead and then promptly slump over dead. Four others were in the tavern when this event occurred. All four are town people, and, in another realm, NPC. Non-player characters. They ‘spring to life’, so to speak, when they spot the four people slumped over. They investigate, and discuss what to do with the bodies. Well, first what to do with the passed out people, but it quickly turns to what to do with the dead bodies once the four realize that they are dealing with death not passed out drunks. One thing leads to another and the four realize something super important – the four adventurers have an invitation from the king. The king known for being, let us say, overly eager to burn and pillage his own people. Any excuse will do. Four dead people traveling under his invitation? Perfect excuse to burn and pillage, say, the village the four people are standing in. The same village they happen to live in and most of whom have family living in. They, naturally, examine the possibility of disposing the bodies as far away from the village as possible. There’s a slight chance that might work. A slight chance is not good enough. And so – NPC’s become . . . adventurers. Specifically, they assume the role of the four dead people.

Right, so. Who are these people? We’ve got Eric the human guard (and kinda really incompetent, the kind who probably would have been out of a job if he wasn’t the friend of the village mayor’s daughter). Naturally, since he has training in armor, and has armor, he’ll ‘pretend’ to be the paladin. Then we have Gabrielle – also a human. She’s the village mayor’s daughter. She spends her time alternating between being boredly tightly bound within the strictures of being ‘a proper lady’ and being a damsel in distress. She’s trained a lot to try to break out of needing people to save her, but it never seems to work. Naturally, since she’s the most educated of the bunch, she’ll pretend to be the wizard. Then there’s the gnome. Whose name escapes me at the moment. That annoys me. Oh right, his name is Thistle. Since he’s worked as a minion and darts around in shadows, he’ll naturally play the role of the Rogue. Lastly we have Grumph; he’s a half-orc and the bartender (and owner of the tavern). Naturally, because he is a half-orc, he’ll play the role of ‘Barbarian’.

Note 1: I got distracted numerous times, by accident, by the fact that Thristle’s god is named Grumble. And his best friend is named Grumph. Occasionally I’d forget which name went with which entity and got confused as to who Thristle was talking with.

The above, the NPC’s interacting with each other, was basically what I expected this book to be about. I knew that the four would end up pretending to be Adventurer’s because that’s in the description. What I didn’t know, though found out almost immediately, is that the book also includes the point of view of actual adventurers in addition to the NPC’s. I’m of two minds about the adventurer’s point of view – about whether it was needed or not. On the one hand – obviously, because of the structure of the book, something like their point of view was needed here and there. On the other hand, just maybe not as much of their story intermixed. Most of the book, though, involves the NPC’s, so I believe the adventurers part/pov was probably about right. Perhaps.

So then – this is one of those books that kind of sucked me in, tickled me, and then spit me out the other side. I rather enjoyed this book, I did. There’s some element that lifted it above where I thought the book would rest, while at the same time there’s some other unexplained element that’s keeping me from marking this down as a five star story. I did kind of love the book though. I’ll have to think harder about the rating. It should be noted, though, that I, once the first book was done, immediately purchased the second book. Recall, if you will, that I initially read this book because it was in the Kindle Unlimited program.

Right, well, um, I guess that’s all I have to say. I think.

February 17 2016

Love Games: A Lesbian Romance by Mia Archer

New cover:

old cover:

Love Games: A Lesbian Romance
by Mia Archer
Pages: 213
Date: December 17 2015
Publisher: Self
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0 stars
Read: February 16 2016

Four quick points: (1) I might have blinked and missed it, but other than mentioning sex, the only graphic action that occurred was passionate kissing; (2) I do not particularly like it when I reach 69% on the file I’m reading only to find that the book is done; (3) despite the above points, or how someone might feel about the above points, I did in fact like this book; (4) just as it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to tell the difference between the two women on the cover of the book I read (the one that looks like lesbian porn, not the one that looks like lesbian fantasy), there were times when the two main characters kind of blended together in my mind. Annoying, that.

Okay then, now that those 4 points are out of the way – this is the second book I’ve read by this author under the name Mia Archer, and both fall into a loosely constructed ‘geek lesbian romances’ (what with the other one also involving a game though there the book focused more on a game convention, while here the book focused on an actual live action game in progress), and . . . I used the word both. I forget whey I used the word both. Oh, both books that I read by this author under the Mia name. Right. Confused myself. I’ve also read one book by this author under the Lexi Archer name, and one short story under that name. So this is the third book I’ve read by this author, and fourth work overall.

Anna and Erin are the two main characters. And the story is told from their point of view. They are both members of a virtual reality game called Alternate Realms that has an element of the gaming take place in reality. By use of phones and tablets.

Anna is a coder and a regional best player. Erin is the reigning champ and the queen, oh and a grad student. No mention of what she’s studying. I’ve a vague impression, based on nothing really, that both might be somewhere in there mid –twenties. The only character who had their actual age mentioned (I think only one) was Anna’s boss, Shelia. Who, oddly enough, is my age and mentions Doom. See, this ‘Alternate Realms’ thing kind of just flies over my head. No real idea about what it is actually about other than a vaguely fantasy-like game like WoW but with the added element of having a phone app connected to the gaming. So you can see your opponent as you lob fire balls at their groin. But Doom; now there’s a game I’ve actually played. Both single and multi-player, but the thing I remember most is spending many a college night playing multiple player Doom, running around, shooting at people while listening to movie soundtracks on a kind of continuous loop (if I recall correctly, I mostly listened to Top Gun).

There are probably several things wrong with this book, or at least that annoy me, but I’ll just mention two: (1) openly gaming during company time? Quite annoying; (2) everyone being described as being gorgeous? Even the forty year-old boss? Doubly annoying (‘She stood there, about forty years old and not looking a day over her mid-twenties. She had blonde hair flowing past her shoulders. Blonde hair that I sometimes wondered about running my fingers through. The boss lady was fucking hot.’)

Well, long and short – nothing grand here – mostly a fluffy book. An enjoyable way to spend my time. Sadly on a level below ‘Girl on Geek’, ‘Villainess Love’, and though better than that short story I read by Lexi Archer. So, ‘Girl on Geek’ was a sold 4.5 story, ‘Villainous Love’ probably wasn’t that far behind in rating, though I see I rated it 4 stars (not sure why I did that; I just looked at the book review I did, I see no reason not to up the rating to 4.5, since I still think about that book all this time later), this book here is a solid 3.5 stars, then that short story I read is a 2.5 effort. So then – overall rating for this author is: only counting books – 4.17; counting everything – 3.75.

One last thought before I move on. I rarely comment on covers, but I will this time. I much prefer this books original cover over the one currently on Amazon (older cover shows two women wearing odd costumes that may or may not correspond to a fantasy/science fiction/gaming book; newer current cover shows two women standing on a desert like setting in sundresses with one woman fondling the other and looking like the cover to a porn video -> if nothing else, the lack of graphic sex will probably annoy those who enter this book after seeing that cover . . . perhaps; hmms wonder if I blinked and missed graphic sex).



February 16 2016

Dead in the Water by Hailey Edwards

Dead in the Water
by Hailey Edwards
Pages: 186
Date: January 30 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: Gemini (1st in series; 6th in shared universe)

Review
Rating: 2.5 out of 5.0
Read: February 14 to 15 2016

My sixth book by this author. Before this book, my average rating for this author was 3.90. After this book, my average rating for this author is 3.67.

This is both the sixth book I've read by this author and the sixth book set in the same universe. Only four of those, though, had the same main character - that being those books in the Black Dog series (and involving Thierry). Well, Thierry was in this book as well, and . . . I don't recall if she has a cameo in Mai's book. She only has a cameo in this book though.

No, this time the main character is Camille Ellis. A Gemini. Other than something about twins, and something about being able to detect what other people are, and a limited time ability to shift into other things, I've no real idea what a Gemini is supposed to be.

The story here isn't really super bad or anything. No, I rated it the way I rated it for the same reason I rated the first book in the Black Dog series 3 stars. The main male was super creepy, and the male-female dynamic in that book was very off putting on so many levels. This is the same in this one. I kind of liked Thierry in that book, though, while I don't really like Camille Ellis. Then the later books in the Black Dog series pushed Shaw, the creepy guy in that Thierry series, into something of a larger than a cameo role but barely role, and I was able to push down the nausea he generated in me. Unfortunately, I don't think this series here will follow the same path.

So - at some point, I believe maybe when she was about 7 or 8, Cam watched her twin sister Lori drown. She's felt incredibly guilty ever since then and is super down on herself. And to increase the level of pain and guilt, she spends her time investigating drowning victims. This brings us to this book here. Apparently there's this person going around killing fae and or magical people. There's a good chance this person doing the kill is also fae.

The first body Cam visits in this book, though not the first death, Cam runs across a guy named Cord Graeson - who is the beta in the Warg clan in the region the dead body was found. Oh, and Cord is also the brother of the dead person and desires to find the murderer. Because of politics, Cam is forced to allow Cord to be involved in the investigation.

One - Warg is what any other fantasy series would call a werewolf. Two - aren't warg's the name of pets Klingon's have? Wait, no, they have Targs, not wargs. Though the targ in Star Trek III was named Warrigul. Which is not a warg but . . . um. Right.

I was having a certain amount of trouble with this book before Cord Graeson kidnapped Cam so once that happened; I just wanted the book to be over. Following Cam around? While she constantly belittled herself? And was involved with the weirdly evil Marshalls (a fellow agent gets into trouble, it takes them a good long while to get off their asses to actually help this fellow agent, okay, so she was a contractor not a fellow agent, so?)? Yeah, that was kind of annoying. Then the kidnapping occurred.

Books like this one here remind me of why I don't like reading MF romance books. Inevitably we end up with a brooding man-child who dominates women and screams things like a two year old ‘mine mine mine’. Happened in the first book in the Dog series I read. Happened here. Happens in way too many other MF romance books I read. Seriously, is that the only thing men can be described as? Man-childs? And I’m supposed to go weak in the knees over it? Well, Cam seemed weak in the knees at times, while bitching about being kidnapped. So . . . supposedly I am supposed to be drooling over the man-child Cord. Oh, and that ‘but he was in grief’? He wasn’t himself? He spread his grief around his werewolf clan so he could operate on finding the killer.

That whole warg thing pissed me off. There’s a female warg Cam meets. She’s kind of bubbly. And kind of cowers around male wargs. And smiles when one calls her over. Though the smile doesn’t reach her eyes. No, her eyes tell a different story. As she is forced, because of pack dynamics, to fuck that male warg. Right there in the open.

One of the reasons I was able to get over a vaguely similar nausea inducing man in Black Dog was because 1) the man didn’t really matter in the series (I’m overplaying his lack of importance, but whatever); 2) the woman was super powerful. Well, this time the man seems to matter, and this time the woman is a super weak ass liability.

This book ends in a cliff-hanger. And you know what? I did not in the least care. I was ready for the book to end 30 pages before it ended in the way it did. Still, there’s a reasonably good chance I’ll try the second book in this specific series here. Mostly on the off chance the author follows the patterns she set down in her other series in this universe. As in, super nausea inducing man introduced, turns out to be less important than expected, woman stronger than expected, etc.

Too bad the Mai series didn’t continue, though. Unlike Thierry and Cam, I always liked Mai. Even if she spends all of her time man-hunting, I still always liked her. And following her story.

Well, it’s probably time to stop babbling now. I’ll just leave with this thought here – I fucking hate Cord Graeson.

February 16 2016

Give Me A Reason by Lyn Gardner

Give Me A Reason by Lyn Gardner
Pages: 662
Date: October 25 2013
Publisher: Self
Series: N/A

Awards:
**Winner of the 2015 National Indie Excellence Awards in LGBT Fiction**
**Finalist in the 2015 International Book Awards for Fiction: Gay & Lesbian**
**Winner of the Silver Medal in the 2014 Global Ebook Awards in Gay / Lesbian / LGBT Fiction**
**Winner of the Silver Medal in the 2014 eLit Book Awards – Illuminating Digital Publishing Excellence in Gay / Lesbian Fiction**

Review
Rating: 5.50 out of 5.50
Read: February 12 to 14 2016

By the time I got to this book, there were a large-ish number of reviews, and all but 24 people 'liked' the book (or 4% of the readers; I'm going with how GoodReads takes everyone that rates a book 3,4,5 and calls them 'like' for % purposes). And so, I'll just tackle a few things here and there.

1) I loved how fully formed the characters were. I'm sure there were things here or there that could be pointed at, probably some of the side characters, but there's even more fully formed side characters going on in this book than is normal in a romance.

2) And we come to the main thing I wanted to mention - the . . .genre of romance novels, I guess I could label the 'thing'. Romance novels, with exceptions, seem to be relatively repetitive in at least one way - they might not all get there the same way, they might have a million and one variations, but they tend to follow a certain path. Two people (occasionally more, but I do not tend to read love triangle books, and rarely poly books) circle each other for most of the book, and even if they 'come together' as a couple fairly early on in the book, that doesn't remove the book from the repetitive cycle. It just means that the couple will probably either have outside forces pound on the relationship (a danger/damsel in distress type situation), or internal forces pound on the relationship (fear, miscommunication, cheating, etc.). And then, as long as the book is actually in the capital R Romance category, then the book ends with a HEA (Happily Ever After) or HFN (hmm, I have the second one wrong, but whatever the letters are, they mean 'Happy for now'). Some include a chapter or two in an epilogue section that follows the couple as a couple. As a fully formed entity. Some don't have that epilogue.

Romance novels tend to get around this relatively repetitive trap of having the majority of the book being about the formation of a couple-hood instead of being about a couple as a combined entity through two to three means - (A) create a series wherein the couple in book 1 can show up as a fully formed entity in book 2 but are not the main characters (see such series like Soho Loft, that Shifter Universe by Jae, the two series by Lynn Galli (Virginia Clan and Aspen Friends) etc.), (B) have a book that's really really long, like, say, this book here. (C) is something like a trick - have romance elements but put the book in a different genre - which the fanfiction by Fletcher DeLancey involving Star Trek Voyager mostly is - Science Fiction with very strong elements of Romance. Or be like two of Galli's books - follow the same couple, but add an element, the second book changes the normal emotional 'things' that wrap themselves around a couple and slam against them, and wrap themselves, instead, around family - so it's a two book series involving a Romance, and something else (Slice of Life?).

I thought, while reading, that the book could have had a great closing roughly around the 56% mark. And when I feared, as I occasionally fear, how this specific author was going to 'mess with' the couple, I kind of wanted it to end there. I'm really really glad that the book did not, in fact, end there, though. But if it had, then it would have been two things - longer than the average romance novel (being, as it is, that 56% of the book would be 371 pages, and most Romance books from 'official channels' in the lesbian genre tend to be closer to 240 to 300 something); and, the second thing, roughly in line with that repetitive thing I mentioned above that Romance books fall into. However they get there, the books are about the formation of a couple, not about a couple living their life after formation of their relationship. Well, this 'formation' didn't end at 56%, but there was enough there for it to close, then have some epilogue tacked on the end. Then spin the second book out as a sequel. I'm, roughly, 100% happy that that isn't the direction this author went.

As I think I mentioned somewhere along the way - this is a fully formed book. A mixture of a Slice of Life book, with a Romance, with a Family novel all rolled into one (with the addition of a 'Holiday' novel slipped inside as well). It even had the element of danger/damsel in distress/etc. mixed in. And no I'm not only talking about flashbacks for that/this point.

Hmms. I just realized that I finished this book in the early morning hours of the 14th. It's one of those books I figured I'd read a little then close it for sleep, glanced at the clock and saw it was 1 am, glanced again when I realized I'd finished the book and noticed it was 3:30 am. *shrug* Back to the 14th - it's a rather good book to read/finish up on/begin the day with on Valentine's Day.

ETA: Oh, right, forgot two elements that I reminded myself of when I glanced at my status updates. This book includes a love scene, and yes I call it love instead of sex, that is arguably the best I've read. And I forgot when I was mentioning things that this book contains - it also contains humor. Bits and pieces here and there.

From my status updates:
- Now that, friends and whatevers, is how you write a love scene. A+ and words like that.

- 'Smiling at her accomplishment, Toni looked over at Laura. “I recommend we don’t open this until Scotland or the bloody thing will projectile vomit all over the motorway.”' - re: filling trunk with luggage. Was funny. I laughed.

February 14 2016

Desolation Point by Cari Hunter

Desolation Point
by Cari Hunter
Pages: 264
Date: April 15 2013
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Pascal & Kent (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0
Read: February 11 2016

My second book that I’ve read by this author.

Even though the first book that I read by this author was a solid 5 star affair, in my mind, I’ve still been slow to read another book by the author. Mostly because I’m not really much of a chills and thrills, damsels in distress type of reader. So, I kind of have to pace myself. Very slowly.

Characters
Two main characters, two . . . no, three, I think three points of view. Two being from the point of view of the ‘damsels in distress’ and one from the villain of the piece.

Alex Pascal opens the book as a police officer in Los Angeles. Very quickly, though, she finds herself injured and in the hospital. Recovery takes a while, and once it’s over, Pascal is back out on the streets. And almost immediately back off. She just can’t do it any longer. So, she packs up and moves to a cabin in the woods. And works there for an old man named Walt. These woods happen to be in the mountains of the North Cascades.

At one point Alex gets her hair cut shortish, before moving from the police to the mountains. I mention because that’s really the most that I came away with in regards to her physical features. Well, that and the scarring. That might be my own fault, not sure, or the author left things open. Heck, I might look back at the book and find a riveting deeply informative description that I somehow just overlooked. Regardless, I do not particularly mind that I’m clueless about what she looks like, or for the fact that I lack knowledge of her age. I think I lack that knowledge. Vague recollection that she’s been on the police force 5 years. Everything being equal that may or may not put her somewhere nearish 27 years of age?

Sarah Kent’s story opens with her in the hospital. A drunk driver rammed and flipped the car she was in. She was in the backseat. Her little sister and mother didn’t make it. Her step-father wasn’t around so he’s alive. He, though, wants nothing to do with the step-daughter who lived in place of his own flesh and blood (not specifically stated, but maybe also in place of his wife).

Once she’s back on her feet, at least physically, and with a certain amount of money in her pocket, Sarah figures that this is the perfect opportunity to quit her job and do a bit of traveling. Eventually she ends up hiking in the North Cascades mountains.

Again, I probably overlooked something, but other than physical injuries, I don’t recall what Sarah looks like. And I don’t have a handy ‘five years in the police’ to guess-estimate an age. There may or may not have been some remark about her being 20 years older than her step-sister. And the step-sister was around 7, so, 27.

The Villain is a man who was in prison but was sprung from it because he had a job/contract uncompleted. And the White Supremacists who he was working for wants him to finish his job. So they sprung him. He’s wandering the mountains with a young woman who he has no feelings for, but claims to be his girlfriend. Bethany being her name. She’s the niece of the leader of the White Supremacist group Nate is working for. Nate’s a cold icy man, with no remorse in killing.

Thrills and Chills
While hiking one day, Alex spots a truck hidden in some underbrush. There’s a fake tag on it. The suspicious circumstance gets her to call it in. Eventually she learns that there was a prison break and that the people involved may or may not be on the mountain. This is the first instance when Alex learned that her hike might involve more than she expected

While continuing her tour of the world, or whatever it was Sarah was doing, she ended up hiking around the North Cascades. Somewhat randomly, she decides to head to Desolation Point. While camping one night, she is startled to find that there’s another tent nearby. Greetings are exchanged. Along with food and conversation. Their part of the story, the two men in the other tent, is mostly there so that they can tell Alex, once she runs into them, that there’s another woman on the mountain. A mountain that suddenly has a very nasty storm striking it.

And so, everyone but Alex, Sarah, and the evil people flee the mountain – fleeing a storm. The storm strikes fast. Not unexpectedly, everyone involved knew it was coming. Just maybe not so fast. Fast enough to catch Sarah up on the summit, on Desolation Point. Rain pounded her. Wind tried to blow her off the mountain. She’s sitting next to shelter but there’s no way in. Visibility is down to about half a foot. This isn’t good when a wrong step could send you hurtling far to your death.

Eventually the weather clears enough to be a really annoying rain, and stiff winds. Fearing staying on the top of the mountain, Sarah begins trying to flee back down. Stumbles around. Hears voices, heads toward said voices. Stares at the people she finds in a clearing. Whimpers when a gunshot goes off. And so Sarah learns that ‘terrible danger’ is on the mountain.

And so – the story continues with Sarah fleeing the bad guys (Nate and Bethany), with Alex wandering around the mountain looking for Sarah.

Also it’s quite chilly.

Romance
Truth be told, I wasn’t really into the romance. It occurred. Life moved on.

Overall
I was rather into the story until about 59 or 69 percent into the book. And then something happened. No, not in the book, this isn’t a plot twist situation. No, something happened in me. I lost the ability to care about the people in the story. I just kind of numbly watched people stumble around, fearing death, crying, whimpering, drowning, whimpering and . . . felt nothing. It’s my own fault. I should have stopped myself instead of pushed myself to the conclusion. Pushed the book away for another day.

So, overall, the book was mostly interesting. I didn’t particularly care one way or another about the romance. And I kind of got numbed at some point, so take all that in advisement when considering how to ‘take’ me rating this specific book 3.5 stars.

There’s a high likelihood I’ll read another book by this author, but it’ll probably be an even longer break between this book and my next book by the author. Than it was between Snowbound and this book (which, I now see, I read almost exactly 2 years ago – Feb 2 to 3 2014).

By the way, I recall now why I became numbed. I had stupidly allowed myself to glance over some other books by this author. Don’t do what I did. You’ll learn something that you don’t want to learn. like, say, the description for the next book involving these two characters. Not sure why, but seeing that this is the first book in an unnamed series kind of drained the thrill/danger/chill from the story. To the point I was just watching people stumble around a mountain. It’s easier, I’ve found, to read a book like this if I don’t in fact already know that the characters will return. Also, it deeply depressed me to realize that their lives were crap before they meet each other (the tragic events that landed both, separately, in the hospital), were crap while they were together (the danger on the mountain), and was/will be crap after that (since the sequel is yet another danger-thrill book).

February 12 2016