Hallowed

In the second installment of the Unearthly Trilogy (after Unearthly), teenaged Clara Gardner is learning more about her abilities and obligations as an angelblood, a human who is part angel by birth. She and her mother and brother, all angelbloods, had moved to Wyoming because of the fiery visions Clara was having and the wildfire had, indeed, occurred. In a departure from what she believed she was destined to do, Clara had rescued a fellow student, Tucker, rather than Christian, another angelblood. Now, Clara is confused, being unsure of what her true purpose might be and torn between destiny and free will. She’s becoming very sure of one thing, though—there is going to be a death and someone she loves will not be at the graveside service.

Adding to Clara’s fear is the unwanted attention of a fallen angel, known as a Black Wing, a being who has tried to kill her and her mother and who creates an aura of overwhelming sorrow whenever he’s near. Unable to tell Tucker everything because of the danger full knowledge would bring, Clara’s main source of comfort is all the other angelbloods in her community and there are quite a few. Maggie, Clara’s mom, has her own secrets and begins to divulge them to Clara and her brother, Jeffrey, culminating in two major revelations.

Angels are the theme of more and more dark fantasy or paranormal books these days, especially in the young adult arena, but Hand brings a fresh perspective to the angelbloods of her trilogy. The religious aspect is handled lightly but with enough depth to convey understanding and the expected rollercoaster of feelings of those just learning what they are—confusion, anger, fear, joy, guilt, shock, sadness, peace—are shown to the reader as though there really is not much difference between angelblood and human teenagers when it comes to emotions. That in itself is unusual and very welcome in this subgenre. The author also gives Maggie a complexity that is often ignored in young adult novels and it’s refreshing to have a parent play such a central role.

The trouble with a really good book is having to wait so long for the next in the trilogy or series. The third Unearthly novel cannot come too soon and Hallowed is the first book I’ll be putting on my list of favorites in 2012.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2012.

Adrien English Mysteries

This edition contains the first two novels in the series, Fatal Shadows and A Dangerous Thing.

Fatal Shadows introduces us to Adrien English, who lives above his Old Pasadena bookstore and is rudely awakened one morning by a pair of detectives, Chan and Riordan, The pair have come to give him the bad news that his employee and long-time friend has been murdered. Not only do they want to know Adrien’s whereabouts at the time of the crime but also whether Adrien was sleeping with Robert. It becomes obvious that the detectives think Robert’s homosexuality had something to do with his death and Riordan in particular seems to have a need to show his manliness. It soon strikes Adrien that he himself may be a target of the murderer but Riordan doesn’t take him seriously. In the meantime, small facts here and there lead Adrien to suspect a connection to his and Robert’s high school days and the body count begins to grow. That’s not all that’s growing though—Adrien can’t help an increasing attraction to Jake Riordan who may or may not be interested in return.

In A Dangerous Thing, Adrien takes a brief vacation to a ranch he inherited near Sonora, leaving his rather strange employee, Angus, in charge of the bookstore. He hopes the peace and solitude will help him break the writer’s block he’s having with his second novel but, just before arriving, he discovers a body lying in the road. Not being a stupid man, Adrien races back down the road and finally reaches someone in the Sheriff’s office. Unfortunately, by the time the sheriff and his deputy arrive, the dead man is gone. A long-lost gold mine, a trespassing team of archaeologists who think Adrien is the trespasser, a field of nicely-growing pot, an 1857 stagecoach robbery and more missing bodies (alive or not) ramp up the tension that Adrien was hoping to escape for a few days. Will Detective Jake Riordan come to the rescue or will perhaps Adrien be the one who rescues Jake after a fashion?

In case it isn’t obvious the two main characters (and some others) are gay but this really is no surprise if the reader does a minimum of research first. The mysteries are light but intriguing puzzles and, although there is some romance (and just plain sex), it’s a pretty good blend. I don’t particularly like to read sex scenes but, in this case, it’s not because the characters are gay—I don’t like it with hetero couples either. So, how did I deal with it? Simple. I used my trusty finger and the touch screen to move on down the road. On the other hand, as a former bookseller, I really enjoyed the details about Adrien’s bookstore, especially the squirrelly writing group and the peculiarities of Angus.

The author has an extensive body of work, plenty to keep a reader going for quite some time, and these are the first two of five installments of the Adrien English Mysteries. I’ll be looking for the next three which, unfortunately, will take me to the end of the series and then I’ll just have to try a lot of Lanyon‘s other books. I expect they’ll be every bit as entertaining as Fatal Shadows and A Dangerous Thing.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2012.

The Hollow House

In 1919 Denver, a young woman from the East is in financial straits and must find a way to support herself. Choices are limited for women at that time so Geraldine Brunton takes a position as companion to an elderly widow whose wealth comes from silver mining. Geraldine is also fleeing from her past, hoping that this employment will be the answer to her need to stay hidden from society.

The Stubbs household is not a cordial one, though, and the widow’s son-in-law and daughter would like to take control of her fortune. The strain in the family is carried over to the servants and Geraldine, who is immediately disliked by the daughter, finds herself becoming very protective of Emmaline Stubbs. In turn, Emmaline finds  much more than she bargained for in Geraldine and begins to appreciate her as more than an employee. When Emmaline has a sudden peculiar illness and then a servant is found murdered, several truths about Emmaline and her family as well as Geraldine come to light with devastating effect.

The Hollow House is a cozy, an historical and a police procedural all rolled into one . I was very interested to get a glimpse into the Denver of 1919 which had some of the modern trappings of post-World War I but also was still somewhat in wild west mode. Patterson also has done a nice job of showing the reader how the views of society, and men in particular, towards women were in a state of flux at the time. That in itself lends much uncertainty to the mystery of who the killer is and what will happen to Geraldine who is threatened by a terrible secret from her former life.

Patterson‘s setting is a bit unusual because nearly all the action takes place in the house. Her characters come to life on the page and I’d love to hear more about them. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any indication that there will be a sequel but one can hope.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2012.

Incarnate

Eighteen-year-old Ana has spent her entire life abused and reviled because she is a nosoul, born without a past into a world in which everyone else has been continually reincarnated for 5,000 years. Those who are reborn remember all their past lives and those of other people.  Ana was born when Ciana died and not reborn and most people believe she stole Ciana’s rebirth.  Ana has left the uncaring Li, the mother who hates her, setting out to find the answers about who and what she is and why she was born. She must go to Heart, the city where all but a few live, and it is a journey filled with bitter cold and the deadly attacks of sylphs whose burns never heal.

Ana meets a young man, Sam, who saves her life and shares with her a love of music while not seeming to be overly concerned about who she is. Sam leads her to Heart, a city with a huge temple and soaring white walls that pulse with heat and perhaps life. There she finds enemies and friends and those who would fight dragons and she begins her search to answer the questions that obsess her. Why was she born? Did she steal Ciana’s life? Is she the only nosoul—or newsoul—or just the first and what will happen to her when she dies? Will she be allowed to stay in Heart or is solitary exile her destiny?

Incarnate is the first entry in the Newsoul trilogy and is based on an intriguing concept, that of endless reincarnation and memory. It’s difficult to define, really, as it has elements of dark fantasy and science fiction as well as romance but that is not a flaw because it will have crossgenre appeal. Ms. Meadows develops her characters nicely and, at the end of the book, I found myself wanting to know what will happen to them all, not just the “good” ones. An odd thing happened as I didn’t always care very much for Ana, becoming rather tired of her self-pity, but that feeling faded soon after I finished and I now believe she is a character who will stay in my mind for quite a while.

One last note—the cover of Incarnate is one of the most striking I have seen in all my years as a reader and a bookseller and I’m pretty sure  booksellers in brick & mortar stores will shelve this face-out and in their windows for maximum effect.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2012.

Chomp

Teenager Wahoo Cray doesn’t live the life of the average kid. Having a dad who’s a wildlife wrangler with a private zoo, Wahoo has grown up with alligators, monkeys, birds of all sorts, giant tortoises, snakes, you name it. His dad, Mickey, hasn’t done much running of the business, though, since he got a concussion from being hit on the head by a falling iguana that died in a hard freeze. With money running low, Wahoo’s mom has gone to China on a two-month teaching job and she’s depending on Wahoo to keep an eye on his dad.

Wahoo has always looked after all the animals, including a twelve-foot alligator named Alice with movie credits to her name, and he has—or actually doesn’t  have—the missing thumb to prove it (he was showing off to a girl so he can hardly blame Alice). When he takes a call from Expedition Survival! looking for a place to shoot an episode of  the reality TV show starring fake wrangler Derek Badger, Wahoo accepts the job on his dad’s behalf.  After all, a thousand bucks a day plus animal rental fees is awfully hard to resist when you can’t pay the mortgage.  Badger especially wants to shoot scenes with Alice and with Beulah, a fourteen-foot python with a penchant for biting (although she can be persuaded to let go with a slug of liquor).

Who could predict that Derek would go missing in the Everglades after being bitten on the tongue by a bat that crashlanded into his cheesecake crumbs (of course, she wouldn’t have bitten him if he hadn’t tried to eat her for the camera) or that he would convince himself he was going to turn into a vampire? Misappropriated airboats, a drunk with a gun, and a kidnapped Mickey lead to more mayhem and there’s no one ready to come to the rescue except Wahoo and a girl named Tuna Gordon. Can they learn to drive an airboat to get there in time? Will Derek turn into a half-vampire because there’s a half-moon?

Carl Hiaasen never fails to be entertaining and Chomp is no exception. It might be written for young middle-graders but adults will love all the action and craziness, too, and will sort of wish they could visit Wahoo and the family zoo.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor,  December 2011.

The Dog Who Knew Too Much

Chet and Bernie of the Little Detective Agency are on the case again, this time in search of a little boy who has gone missing from a wilderness camp up in the mountains. The boy’s mom, Anya, had hired Bernie as a bodyguard because she thought her ex might snatch the child but it doesn’t take the detective duo long to discover that something much  more sinister is going on. There’s no doubt that Devin is missing but evidence of bullying leads to questions of camp management. Chet and Bernie set out with the trail guide to find Devin but Bernie then begins to see signs that the camp’s director and the trail guide are not being entirely forthcoming and perhaps criminal activity is afoot.

Chet is the next to disappear and Bernie is arrested and charged with murder after a body is found in an abandoned mine. It’s up to Chet to escape his kidnappers—which he does in typically clever Chet fashion—and find a way to rescue Bernie with a little help from Bernie’s almost-girlfriend, Suzie.

The Dog Who Knew Too Much is the fourth in the series and the first to  have a real, nail-biter mystery—the first three were wonderful, eminently readable books but a bit lightweight in the suspense arena.The charm of a Chet and Bernie mystery, though, lies largely in Chet’s interpretations of the world around him and that’s no less the case in this installment: when Anya says she used to wish time would stop and the only thing left of the sandwiches she, Bernie and Chet have been eating is the crusts of one egg salad sandwich, Chet pegs her as a risk taker.

And just who is that puppy who looks suspiciously like Chet?

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2011.

Sex and the Kitty

Nancy’s first memoir—she’ll certainly need more as she gets older and, as she says, she’s leaving the door open for possible sequels—sets the record straight on her birth and early life in a small town as she awaits her destiny. Anyone with Nancy’s charm, beauty and wit is bound to find fame and adventure and Nancy’s journey to the high life begins with her jaunts to the local pubs where she develops a human fan base.

She also puts together Team Nancy, a group of local cats whom she instructs on how to be proper fans. Team Nancy includes her cranky stepcat, Pip, as well as Brambles, a Siamese with germophobia, OCD and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Bella, who’s afraid of being abandoned again, and the adventurous devil-may-care Murphy. Not included in Nancy’s posse for various reasons are Bish, Bash and Bosh, a trio of erudite pet rats, Bruce, a Jack Russell suffering from small dog syndrome and Dennis, the neighborhood alpha cat.

Nancy lands a part in the community theatre production of Animal Farm. Things don’t go too well—suffice it to say chickens are involved. Next thing you know, Nancy has a blog and a Facebook account and then it happens—she gets an agent who promises her stardom but she’ll have to move to London. With a few regrets, Nancy leaves her family and friends behind and heads off to the big city and all it has to offer such a special feline, including the possible attention of that most handsome of kitties, Baron Romeo III. Will this superstar of Kit-E-Licious cat food bring love and happiness to our Nancy?

I confess I’m a solid, hardcore cat lover but, I ask you, how could anyone resist such a feline as Nancy? This little kitty is certainly narcissistic—what cat isn’t?—but she’ll still charm the socks off anyone who’ll give her a chance and she has written a must-read bestseller. Go on, you know you want to.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2011.

Saint Nick and the Fir Tree

Tree is really a yew but likes to pretend he’s a fir. After all, yews make people think of all kinds of sad scenarios while firs bring the cheer of Christmas. Who wouldn’t want to be a fir? Tree also has a sense of adventure so when Santa Claus comes to town for his annual after-Christmas vacation, Tree is absolutely thrilled when Santa gives him a present and asks him to take a walk.

Wait—take a walk? Trees can’t walk! Then again, this IS Santa and Santa DOES mean magic so off they go. To avoid being spotted by the neighbors, Tree is in disguise with sunglasses and a tasseled ski cap. Santa and Tree have a grand old time until they get lost in the snow…and find the body. Has there been foul play? Is a murderer on the loose?

At this time of year, we become more and more frantic as Christmas approaches and it’s a pleasure when we find a few moments to just relax and enjoy the season. What better way to spend those few moments than reading—perhaps aloud to family and friends—such a charming tale as this? Saint Nick and the Fir Tree is the perfect little story to get one in the proper mood for the holidays.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2011.

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Congratulations to Melba L. May, winner of a copy of

“Saint Nick and the Fir Tree” by Nancy Adams!

If This Is Paradise, I Want My Money Back

Charlotte lies in a hospital bed, trapped by a coma, listening to the conversations around her. Most are directed at her in attempts to bring her back to consciousness and she appreciates the efforts, really she does, but a little peace and quiet would be nice, too. Between her best friend Fiona’s chatter about the latest guy she met on the internet and her mum’s blathering on about just about anything, not to mention the boring music they make her listen to, Charlotte just might stay down where it’s really rather nice.

None of them know the truth about what happened right before the car accident when her significant other, James, unceremoniously dumped her after five years and asked her how soon she could move out. Charlotte was clueless, had no idea he…hmm, she can’t quite remember but it’ll come to her…and, well, she’d ignored the fact that all her family and friends had disliked him from the beginning. Looking back, she guessed she should have paid attention.

And then James comes to see her and pours on the charm, trying his best to appear terribly concerned. Unfortunately for him, no one in the room is buying his act.  Then, listening to his BS, she remembers, the Other Woman. To top it all off, he takes a call from his new honey and starts with the sexy talk, right there beside Charlotte’s bed. That’s all it takes for her to see the bright light.

Charlotte finds herself apparently dead and about to be “assessed” by Regina Angelorum (who first has to take a call with Gabriel, THE Gabriel) to see whether she’s a candidate for the AWE programme—that’s Angelic Work Experience. Next thing she knows, she’s in a classroom, learning all she needs to know to be a guardian angel.

Then she gets her earthly assignment and she can hardly believe she’s right back on earth…in James’s house. Horrified at first at the idea that James is her charge, she soon learns that there is a way she can mess with him. Charlotte is delighted with her new-found abilities until the day she learns that being an angel is not all fun and games. Fortunately, there might be a way she can redeem herself.

This is a delightful mix of laughter and sorrow, anger and forgiveness and, above all, redemption. Ms. Carroll has crafted an intriguing story and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, November 2011.

Murder Half-Baked

Real estate agent Ellen McKenzie is in the midst of preparations for her wedding to Dan Dunham, the local police chief, and has to contend with the horror of a wedding dress, ruffled hoopskirt and all, her mother has sent to this forty-something bride. The wedding is just a few weeks away, finding a caterer is proving to be the seemingly impossible dream and there’s a problem with the wedding cake, a big problem.  Thanks to Ellen’s and Dan’s moms, the guest list is growing past the point of no return and even the flowers aren’t going to be what Ellen wanted.

In the meantime, Grace House, a home for women who are in a difficult time in their lives and in need of some assistance, is bursting at the seams. Ellen has been asked to sell the current house and find a bigger one, not an easy task in the currently stressed real estate market.  Dr. Owen Sadler’s wife, Francis, left a legacy to Grace House and, if  Owen donates more as expected, the board of directors will have the funds needed to pay for a new location.

Unfortunately, Dr. Sadler won’t be making that donation. There is no shortage of people who don’t like the unpleasant man and one of them has apparently bashed his head in at the cemetery.  Not long after, Grace House burns to the ground and arson is suspected.  Dan and Ellen offer their home as a temporary haven for the residents of Grace House and that puts Ellen right in the middle of the investigation whether Dan likes it or not.

Murder Half-Baked would seem, on the surface, to be in the “cozy” subgenre but that label doesn’t quite do full justice to this story.  Much attention is paid to the grim facts of domestic violence and dark family secrets and the author blends those themes well with the usual cozy attributes. The result is appealing and a bit edgy. I must also commend the author, and perhaps her editor, for a job well done when it comes to writing style and the quality of the actual product—what a pleasure it is to read a good story with attention paid to such pesky details as grammar and spelling!

Delaney has given her fans a nice follow-up to And Murder for Dessert and I will look forward to the next in the series as well as the first in the new series she has making the rounds with her agent.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, November 2011.