"Trump is not the first president to obsess over his opponents and to rant about the seeming injustice of the world. He's just the first to make the rest of us listen in as he does it."

5 stars for presentation, -9000 stars for the content, which is unfortunately all real.

It's nice to get inside Julie's head and see what she's thinking and how she thinks. When the narrative surrounding her is mostly the stress her behavior puts on our beloved main character, it's easy to just view her as another uncontrollable teenager with authority issues. Seeing Julie's values from her POV makes her more rounded as a character.

At the end of Magic Breaks, Julie makes a comment about wanting to stay at her school once

Kate and Curran step down as the Pack alphas

. This short story pieces together how Julie, disdainful of traditional education, began at Seven Stars Academy and what compelled her to stay. She's definitely adopted a lot of Kate's better traits, caring for others regardless of peer pressure against it and doing what's right rather than what's easy. Not a small thing, for a girl who spent a good chunk of her childhood homeless on the streets.

Merged review:

It's been a hot minute (aka, way back in 2013) since I devoured all of the Kate Daniels books that were available, so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone: continue an enjoyable series and check off another ticky box on my 2018 POPSUGAR challenge.

Luckily for me, this is the exact book they choose to open with a series summary exposition chapter as told in a journal entry by a supporting character, Barabas Gilliam. Perfect!

This book was a goddamn ride. I loved everything about it ... except the sex scene at the end. Not because I don't think after these events, Kate and Curran wouldn't have a life-affirming bang session or four, but it's just so bad. Saying someone "tastes male" is just, wow. Purple prose going the wrong way.

That’s us down there, [Granny] thought. Everyone knows who we really are, but the [actors] down there are what they’ll remember—three gibbering old baggages in pointy hats. All we’ve ever done, all we’ve ever been, won’t exist anymore.

There's a surprising metaphor for the necessity of accurate representation in media in this, a comedic fantasy about meddling-but-not-meddling witches.

As I read about the Evil Duchess commissioning a play to entertain the masses and/or inform them of the "real" way the former king kicked the bucket, all I could think about was The Bad Man shrieking about fake news and every distraction the administration puts out in an attempt to avert the public's eye from their metaphorical staircase murder. Obviously not Pratchett's original point, seeing as this was published in 1988, but clearly the meanings of some things are universal.

He regarded me seriously. “Not bad. What’s your name?”
“You know my name.”
“Your full name.”
“Marie-Josephe-Rose.”
“Joseph is your father’s name?”
“Was.”
“Was he a good man?”
I smiled. Hardly. “A very good man.”
“Very well, I shall call you Josephine, after the heroine in Le Sourd. Have you seen it?”
“My name is Rose.”
“You are mistaken."

3.75 stars. Napoleone, as noted by history, was kind of a dick.

If you are looking for a grand tale of passion between Napoleon Bonaparte and Rose (Joséphine de Beauharnais), you should try elsewhere. This novel, the first in a trilogy, starts with Rose as a young teenager in Martinique but her life truly begins when she marries Alexandre de Beauharnais, an aristocrat-cum-politician, at the age of 17.

In epistolary format, she chronicles her terror and worry as she desperately tries to keep her family safe and together during the French Revolution, bargaining with all the political capital she has, even as she is imprisoned in Carmes. Napoleone doesn't become a feature until the very end, after

Alexandre is sent to the guillotine and she has two (relatively) unsuccessful amourettes with powerful men.

The quote above really exemplifies the relationship between Rose and Napoleone; he is driven and odd and socially flat, while she tries to figure him out. They're friends of a sort by the end of the novel, married at the behest of Rose's former lover and Napoleone's mentor. Rose is intrigued by Napoleone's intensity, but there's no real love there. As an "aging" (32) widow with two children and less money than expenses, her decision is much more practical than romance. Napoleone claims to desperately love her, but was also offered an army to drive the Austrians out of Italy in exchange for this marriage, so who's to say?

"A witch a got to have a hat, otherwise who’s to know?” said Granny. She made a grab as something dark and sodden drifted by, cackled triumphantly, tipped out the water and rammed the hat on her head. It had lost its stiffening and flopped rather rakishly over one eye.

“Right,” she said, in a tone of voice that suggested the whole universe had just better watch out.

Sorry, Eric. I have a new love of my life and her name is Esmeralda Weatherwax.

Review to come.

Then I called Victor and I was all, "Okay, our pest control guy doesn’t know what a chupacabra is,” and he said, “Really? We live in Texas. That shit should be on the exam,” and I was like, “EXACTLY."

Jenny Lawson is tremendously funny about what a Hot Mess she was as a child and continues to be as an adult.

3.75 stars, rounded up.

As these pages show, based on his own words and deeds, Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to hold any public office. That Donald Trump legitimately holds office under our Constitution is beyond question. That he is a clear and present danger to the whole world should be obvious by now.

And yet ...

Review to come.

"I am hardening men's hearts to fight. I am nourishing them with dreams of liberty. Of victory. I have been behind every revolt. Every insurrection. Every act of disobedience."

Not a standard historical fiction novel. Review to come.