Occult meets real life crime solving...and it worked! A great mesh of the supernatural witchcraft and good old fashioned detective foot work creates an intriguing and captivating story. Diana is an "average" girl that just happens to be a witch. While her witchcraft plays an important role in helping to track down a murderous cult, she would not have been able to do it by those means alone. With an ending that at first leaves you a bit upset, Mercedes Lackey ties everything up quite neatly and satisfactorily in the last few pages without giving the reader a rushed feeling.

While some of the occult references aren't quite accurate to historical accounts, the story is written in a way that makes it easy to forgive and accept the slight inaccuracies.

Finally a Western Romance that I could get into. The story of John Wolf and Tara Flannigan could have taken place anytime and anywhere. It relates the harsh world containing outlaws, animals, and murderous siblings. There were a few pleasant surprises in the plot and the characters were wonderful. Carol Finch describes the area in such a way that you feel yourself there.

I had to stop reading this about 2/3 of the way through. I really really tried to finish it, but there were too many "oh woe is me" moments from both the hero and the heroine. It seemed to me that half the story she was whining about falling in love with a yankee, and he was whining about falling in love with her. On to the next book...I'm sure it will be better.

Princess Eilonwy has been sent off to train to become a lady. Taran and faithful Gurgi accompany her and what is expected to be a peaceful voyage and farewell. Of course, things never work out the way they should. Achren, the enchantress, is back and up to no good. Then one day the Princess goes missing.

The companions find themselves together once again on a hunt to find the Princess Eilonwy before Achren can cause her harm. Along the way we meet my favorite minor character in the book...a very large feline. She's wonderful, and reminded me of my own cats.

The book overall is a great story. I'll be holding onto it so that I can read it with my daughter in a couple years.

Every hundred years four children are selected to take on the task of ...something. Even after finishing the book I'm not entirely sure what that task is. The four children, Elletra, Harvey, Mistral, and Sheng, find themselves thrown together by the oddest of circumstances. It becomes obvious that these circumstances have been set up to place these four key players in the correct position to begin.

And so it does begin...in Rome. The descriptions of the city were quite nice and my version included a few pages of colored photos of some of the points of interest, which was nice since I do not know much about Rome.

The story itself revolves around the action the four children take once they meet and find themselves in possession of several strange articles. We follow their escapades as they try to solve the mystery of what these items mean and the power they must hold, for a killer has been set on their trail that will stop at nothing to have them. the children are likable but there is very little depth or growth to them. Their journey is filled with accidental findings to help them continue when there were no apparent clues to help them. The books ends with an obvious cliff hanger which I feel inclined to add to my wish list, if only to find out what the task set for the children really is.

Read to catch up on the new rules for a table top strategy game I'm thinking of starting again. It actually has some nice little stories and descriptions to make things more interesting.

Diana Tregarde is a guardian who is sworn to protect those who ask for her help. She finds herself caught up in a complex series of what at first appears to be coincidence, but with the help of her friends and a man she just met, she puts the pieces together to find that many of the strange things happening were really linked together.

Diana experiences every possible emotion in this book and Lackey is there to show them to us in a detailed way that leaves the reader grinning at her jokes, wishing we could give her comfort as she cries, and wanting to hide in the corner with her fears.

Overall, quite a good book. The story was engaging from the beginning and had enough twists and turns to keep you interested without confusing or muddling the chain of events. Personally, I would have liked to see the characters of Lenny and Keith, who in their own way played quite an important, if small role, expanded on a little more as they seemed a bit flat. At times the story began to turn towards a romance novel, but before it could get too far Lackey reigned it in and got back on track.

Valora Delos has a chip on her shoulder, but she handles it in a good way. She tries to prove that she is just as good as any of the other fae out there. When a blight strikes the land of Dell'Aria, draining the magic of its people and eventually killing them, Valora quickly joins the Hunters. The Hunters are a team of Fae dedicated to tracking down those responsible for releasing the blight on their land, the Soulstealers.


Valora has always had a cruch on King Aric, so when he asks her to take on a special mission to Earth, normally a forbidden realm, to track down a Soulstealer that he believes will have the answers to it all, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to him. Little does she know that this one mission will turn several worlds upside down.


On Earth, she meets Dooley, a very woodsy and down to earth guy that seems to have a strange pull on her. This is where I thought the steamy stuff was going to start - but I was wrong. It got close - and I'm not going to tell with who - but then it just seemed to taper off before it was able to really get started.


The longer Valora spends on Earth, the more confused she becomes, and I did right along with her. I wasn't sure which guy I should be cheering for, who the Soulstealer was, or if Valora would even be able to figure it out. The characters she meets along the way, both from Earth and Dell'Aria, were fantastic, but seemed to muddle things further by putting their own opinions out there trying to influence Valora's opinions.


For hard core romance fans, this will be too tame for you. For those of you looking for something a little more wild that a typica urban fantasy or paranormal fantasy book, this would be just right. The heat is there, it's just not there all the time.

Prince Sigismund has grown up sheltered and protected while his father's kingdom is at war. He has fallen in love with all the stories of enchanted creatures and heroes rescuing princesses. Then one day it all becomes real. A not-so-chance encounter with a sorceress sets events in motion that will change his life forever.

Hearing the tale of Sleeping Beauty from the prince's point of view was fantastic. He wasn't a hero, but had to learn how to be one. With several teachers to help him along the way, he must face powers that he could never imagine, even after reading all the old tales. He finds himself drawn to the enchanted forest, a place that is forbidden to all. When he discovers that his dreams of a princess trapped in the forest are all real, he knows what his destiny is.

Sigismund is not perfect, and this is one of the many things that makes the story so good. He is trustworthy to a fault and has to learn that not everyone is what they seem to be. Caught up in events that seem to be spinning out of control, and taken away to fantastic realms that are not his, he learns the lessons and skills that it will take to save the princess.

The resolution had everything you ask for in a fairy tale, along with a few extra surprises thrown in to keep things a little interesting.

Alexandra Douglas is a very smart young woman. After finding out that both she and her invalid sister will be denied their inheritance, she concocts a daring and dangerous scheme that will correct the situation. She goes, in disguise, to take the money back from the cousin that refused to give it to her when her father died. Alexandra Douglas is also a very stupid young woman, putting herself at great risk in a scheme that could ruin her at best, and find her at the wrong end of a hangman's noose at the worst. I loved Alex's daredevil and fiery personality, but at times she seemed so dead set on taking caring of things herself, that she just made everything worse.




Peregrine, or Perry, Blackwater is the last of the three Blackwater brother to find an unsuitable bride to meet the demands of his Uncle's will. When he meets the intriguing librarian, Alexandra "Hathaway" at Combe Abbey, he has no idea that he's found just the girl he is looking for. He uses his inquisitive and persistent mind to set about finding out the truth about the librarian, he can tell there is more to her than most people see. What he discovers is nothing near what he expected as he begins to fall in love with the mysterious young woman that can play so many different parts so well.




This book got off to quite a slow start. There was so much to develop in Alex's past and her current disguise and made up personality that the real romance didn't come into play until about half way through. There was so much involved in Perry finding out the truth about Alexandra that it almost became a bit overdone. But once the story took off, it took off at a sprint. As Alex's plans begin to crumble around her, Perry finds himself coming to her rescue with help from a surprising source. Even though Alex didn't treat Perry very well at times (it made me want to reach into the book and shake some sense into her), he remains true and loyal, determined to keep her safe and make her his.




After a slow beginning, the fast paced finish was quite a shock. I had a hard time putting the book down after I got half way through - and then suddenly it was all over. I wish the pace had been a little more spread out. The book is the third, and final, book about the Blackwater Brides. I think I will be putting the first two on my reading list so I can see more about this intriguing family and the women they love.