Monday, March 20, 2017

Unicorn Crossing by Dana Simpson

Unicorn Crossing by Dana SimpsonI've heard about this series on several podcasts and at least a few blogs and there was a general amount of squee-age involved with every review. And now I know why.
The unicorn, Marigold, and her human friend Phoebe go through a lot in this book. Halloween, winter, reading books (discussion of ebook vs. physical vs. scroll), Marigold going on a trip, and many other adventures. It's fast, it's fun, it even imparts some moral lessons. A good read.

Four and a half stars
This book comes out March 28

Sunday, March 19, 2017

The Unyielding by Shelly Laurenston

Erin Amsel has been described as infuriating. Somehow, this resurrected-from-the-dead Crow has managed to piss off both gods and man alike. And she actually seems to enjoy doing it. Pretty much no one enjoys spending time with her, even Stieg Engstrom so he's not especially happy to have been assigned to following her around to the hottest clubs in town.
The Unyielding (Call of Crows, #3)It's not as if Stieg is a happy guy on a regular day anyway. He's often described as the angriest viking ever. But the more time that he spends with her, the more he is attracted to her. And he wants to have her back when it turns out she's the only one who can help save the world from the coming apocalypse.  It's going to be up to both of them to dive into hell and be able to still come up swinging.

I honestly couldn't see why Erin would be pissing people off. I also wanted to know more about both her and Stieg's backgrounds. We got a gloss but no further explanations. And the same for their eventual trip to retrieve and object that would help stop the end of the world. It was supposed to be an epic journey but went REALLY fast. And I couldn't decide if I was amused or not how much Nidhogg was modeled on movie-Smaug. But I did like their romance, even with the danger boner and I especially liked the fighting with the crazy She-Elf. I would suggest new readers start at the beginning of the series but I think regular readers will quite enjoy this books.

Three and a half stars
Follows The Undoing
This book comes out March 28

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Finding Our Forever by Brenda Novak

Cora Kelly is trying to find some closure in her life. She wants to know more about her birth mother and thinks that working at the boarding school her mother runs. But Aiyana Turner wasn't the one to hire Cora, instead, it was one of her 8 (!) adoptive sons, Elijah. A man who Cora is desperately attracted to.
Eli has some past issues of his own. He might have been adopted by Aiyana but the beginning of his life wasn't exactly tea and roses. We don't actually get a full description of what his life was like which was sort of disappointing. There are glimpses of his current relationship with his birth mother but no resolution.
This is a wonderful Novak story but suffers from a few things -- this is a world building story so we don't get as much time with the main characters, we get to see a lot of the physical relationship with Cora and Eli (why are so many authors into sex in public places right now? Is this the new thing in romance novels?) but not as much of the emotional, there is a nice use of condoms in the beginning and some discussion of alternate means of birth control but no discussion of STIs as if condoms were only used as a mean to prevent pregnancy but nothing else.
This isn't one of Novak's super-emotional stories that rips your hearts and guts out but I still think regular readers will enjoy.

Three stars
This book comes out March 21
Followed by No One But You

Friday, March 17, 2017

Seduce Me, Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Seduce Me, Cowboy by Maisey YatesHayley Thompson has been the good girl for her whole life up to and including working as her father's secretary. In the church where he was the pastor. Everyone knows who she is. Everyone knows what to expect of her. So when she decides to answer an ad to be the assistant to a man she doesn't know, life changes drastically.
Jonathan Bear owns a successful company but doesn't feel like he is successful. Instead, he feels like the town bad boy (although we never really see that in this book, maybe it was better built up in previous books in the series?). When Hayley Thompson replies to his ad, he doesn't think she'll stick. But when she does, he becomes attracted to her. And though he tries to stay away, he just can't.
This book, even at over 200 pages, felt really fast. The relationship never really had time to develop. I did enjoy the fact that this story was for Hayley and Jonathan without too many "pop-ins" from previous people in the series.

Three stars
This book came out March 7

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Bound Together by Christine Feehan

I loved the Sea Haven books and wanted to finish out the Sisters of the Heart, even though I felt the series was getting farther and farther away from what was making it good. But, I finally got the story for Viktor Prakenskii. We've known for some time that he's married to Blythe Daniels and he's finally coming home to get her. Oh. And he's bringing eighteen of his chose family home to her so that she can heal them just like she's going to heal him. And the kids that he's bringing home, the ones that have been the victims of some pretty horrific sexual abuse. But it's okay because he's going to make it be okay.
Blythe isn't so sure about letting Viktor back into her life. He got close to her, married her (she's pretty sure about that point but it's a bit fuzzy), and then murdered her stepfather right in front of her. Then disappeared for five years without a trace. But he's back now along with his motorcycle club that seems to have no boundaries. And that's no problem because Viktor keeps telling her it's no problem.
I had so many issues with this book. It was really more of a two and a half but I rounded up. I just really need to stop reading Feehan's books because they aren't my cup of tea and yet I keep picking them up. To be honest, this book was just darn hard to follow. The sequel bait was an entire motorcycle club all with real names and nicknames. And this book is FULL of the thing that drives me nuts about this author, she doesn't just give you information, she slaps it upside your head four or five times to make sure that you know that Savage and Reaper are blond. And brothers. And the one is more broken. I couldn't even tell you which because, even after all that repetition, we had the motorcycle club to keep track of, the previous H/Hs from five books in the Sisters of the Heart series PLUS there was a tie-in to the 7 Sea Haven books.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out March 21

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Baker Street Irregulars: Thirteen Authors With New Takes on Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is hella popular these days with movies, television shows, and books all re-imagining how these books could be reinterpreted -- brought into the modern day or different genres. This book invites thirteen different authors to do just that.

Locked Mike Strauss
Set up as Sherlock and Watson being on some sort of reality show where Sherlock solves crimes and Watson plays the bumbling fool, who in fact is is league with the producers to make Sherlock look good. I didn't really get a good feel for the show or for Sherlock. The premise was interesting (basically the producers hire people to commit crimes so that Sherlock can solve the case) but didn't play out well in a short story.

 Three stars

Identity: An Adventure of Shirley Holmes and Jack Watson Keith R. A. DeCandido
There have been a LOT of gender-swapping of the Holmes and Watson characters. Some more successful than others. This story not only plays with gender but with race. Set in the modern day, Watson encounters Martha Hudson while covering for her oncologist. It plays close to the beloved Sherlock Holmes we all know except that Shirley is her niece in this case and Martha wants someone to move in and keep an eye on her. The case they solve will be familiar to Holmes fans with some nicely updated twists.
 Four stars

The Scent of Truth Jody Lynn Nye
A futuristic sci-fi Holmes. In this case, the Holmes-character is a dog-like being from another planet (named Baskur, naturally) and he has mainly retired but is lured into another case by a middle-aged journalist. There was some really nice world-building for a short story in this one and the info-dumping was kept short and tight.

Four stars

The Adventure of the Reluctant Detective Ryk Spoor
I swear I've read this one before. Or at least a similar version. Supposedly a case that takes place somewhere in the middle of the Holmes canon, soon after Mary dies, it starts with a strange woman entering Sherlock's apartment. She is not quite... right. For the woman she claims to be, there are some glaring discrepancies. To tell too much more would give the ending away but it wasn't quite up to the snuff of ACD.

Two and a half stars

A Scandal in the Bloodline Hildy Silverman
Suppose that Watson became a werewolf after an encounter with the Hounds of the Baskervilles. And that Sherlock was turned into a vampire at the edge of the Reichenbach Falls by Irene Adler. Now it is present day and Irene's huband, the paterfamilias, is missing. If he dies, she will go to. As will Sherlock.

Three stars

The Fabulous Marble David Gerrold
An interesting take where Watson is... some sort of computer program? Not an AI, exactly, since that's more what Marble does/is. There is a particular brand of sexbot, the Lorelei, that can become whatever the user desires; man, woman, other. Several bots that have been dismantled and their... well their male options have been removed. This one was a little too weird for me but a nice idea.
Three stars

The Scarlet Study by Jim Avelli
In a world where Big Brother makes people take drugs to keep them dumb, Sherlock Holmes has a brief, shining moment of reversing the trend. Three stars Delta Phi Heidi McLaughlin If Watson were a love-struck frat boy and Sherlock an oblivious girl on campus, it would take a very special case to bring them together. I love romance novels, I love cheese, this was a little too much.

Two stars

Beethoven's Baton Austin Famer Sherlock and Watson are violinists in Ludwig van Beethoven's orchestra but it seems like someone is plotting to kill the great man. Again, a little too much of a reach and the ending was bonkers.

Two stars

The Adventure of the Melted Saint Gail Z. Martin
Quirky. Very quirky. Sherlock was not the main character in this one. It felt like she (Shelley is transgender in this story) was just stuck into another story. As a Sherlock Holmes story, it was maybe a two/two and a half but I liked the idea of a Museum collecting objects that have ghosts attached, waiting for their mysteries to be solved. 

Three stars

Automatic Sherlock Martin Rose
Dr. Jovan Watson is Russian, working on a robot that will perform the perfect surgeries. But instead of his dream being realized, he is left with a robot that can... solve crimes? Might have been better as a more developed story.

Two and a half stars

The Hammer of God Jonathan Maberry
A really interesting take where Sherlock Holmes and John Watson become a novice and her mentor who are called in to solve a series of crimes that seem to have been perpetrated by God himself. Not sure how I feel about this as a Sherlock story but I liked the idea. Three stars Code Cracker Beth W. Patterson Sherlock is a crime-solving parrot. Do I need to say more? The idea was interesting, the story was just meh.

Three stars

Overall Three stars
This book comes out March 21

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Can You Solve My Problems? by Alex Bellos

I really enjoyed most of this book. I did a lot of logic puzzles when I was younger and this reminded me of them. Most of these were puzzles I hadn't read before and I enjoyed that there were all levels of puzzles and the explanations were clear and coherent.
After awhile it did get a bit boring so it might be good to portion the puzzles out. I also would not recommend getting the ebook. It was really annoying to try and flip back and forth between the front and back on a digital version, so much easier with a physical book.

Four stars
This book comes out March 21