Review book courtesy of Penguin Group.
Visit Meljean Brook on the web.

Since I’m way behind here (who knew cats could have so many health problems?), I’m going to give you a taste of Meljean Brook’s Guardian series universe by quoting from her online series primer before I dive into my review:

… The Second Battle took place on Earth, and Lucifer brought with him a dragon from the Chaos realm. The angels began to falter before the dragon—but mankind, witnessing the battle taking place, joined the angels in their fight against the demons. One man, Michael, destroyed the dragon by cutting through its heart with his sword. With the dragon slain, the angels regrouped and were victorious.

After the Second Battle, the seraphim retreated from Caelum and from Earth. They bestowed upon Michael the power to protect humans, and to transform into Guardians any men or women who had sacrificed their lives to save another from otherworldly threats. In addition to immortality, wings, strength, and the ability to alter their appearance, these Guardians were given individual Gifts to assist in their fight against the demons and nosferatu.

This leads to a world filled with vampires, demons, Guardians, and more. Epic battles, and epic love affairs.

In Demon Forged, (see The Guardian Series for a full listing of the novels and stories in this series), the Guardians Irena and Alejandro are forced to deal with each other again after centuries avoiding each other. A terrible tragedy involving a bargain with a demon tore them apart just when they were falling for each other all those years ago. Now they’ll have to work together, however, to deal with a deadly betrayal, a horrific prophecy, and the possibility that Hell itself is about to spill over into the mortal realm.

It’s pretty common these days to be able to dive into the middle of a series—after all, print runs are often small enough that the first book in a series might be out of print by the time the last book comes out. I would not start with Demon Forged, however. Or at least, I’d go and read that online primer first, from start to finish. Being a reviewer often results in my starting mid-way through a series simply because a publisher will send me something out of the middle of a series first, and this time I was definitely confused. (Too bad I hadn’t realized that primer was out there before-hand! But at least now you know, dear reader!) This world is very complex and detailed—in a good way—but it was tough to catch up with this far into the series. On the good side, I loved it so much that I went out and bought the rest of the books. (*shakes fist at sky* Like I need another set of books to catch up on!)

The demon bargain that tore Irena and Alejandro apart isn’t completely detailed until more than 100 pages into the book, but it’s referred to so many times before then as background that I really wished I’d understood more about it. I understand wanting to reveal something slowly, but I just ended up feeling confused, as though I was missing something. Since this isn’t discussed in the “I’m starting with Demon Forged” part of the primer, I’m guessing it wasn’t detailed in previous books, and thus reading those wouldn’t have helped in this case.

Irena is one of the things that made this such an awesome book for me. She’s a standout character. Her 1600-plus years of life have made her knowledgeable and wise in particular ways, but she’s still also the largely uneducated, blunt, even boorish woman she was in life. She’s strong, fierce, independent, sexy, and a perfect complement to Alejandro’s smooth, educated manner.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s a fascinating chemistry and subplot between Guardian Doyen Michael and human detective Taylor. While I’m sure it would have been even better if I’d had the background of the other books, it was still quite wonderful.

Add in an epic plot that threatens to destroy the very world itself; one or two shocking betrayals; and several fascinating worlds filled with dangerous creatures; and you have a wonderful book that definitely convinced me to pick up the rest of the series!

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group.

Since I’ve fallen behind on my reviewing (ack! Too many cat & family health issues—both our cats have a cardiologist and asthma inhalers now), I’ll cheat and quote the back-cover text to give you a taste of the plot before I let you know what I think of the book.

Forensic anthropologist Caitlin Fleming knows bones. So she is the first one called when seven sets of skeletal remains are found dumped in a makeshift graveyard in the Oregon wilderness. The skeletons bear the same distinctive marks—and each is missing a skull…

Cait needs outdoor guide Zach Sharper for one reason only—to help her find her way through the Willamette Forest as she pieces together clues. Despite the attraction that burns between them, Cait will let nothing shake her focus. Until the killer closes in to terminate the search—and the investigators on the verge of unmasking him…

I definitely enjoy Kylie Brant’s characters, and those in Waking the Dead are no different. She depicts strong, independent, three-dimensional heroes, heroines, and side characters that pull me in and make me want to know what happens to them. In particular this time I love Cait’s tiny, angelic-looking, foul-mouthed assistant.

The tension that keeps Zach and Cait apart for a while is believable—Zach doesn’t want to be at the beck and call of anyone for any reason, even a murder investigation, and his lack of social graces doesn’t endear him to Cait. It doesn’t help that for a little while it seems he might fit the profile of the murderer in some respects. Once the two come together, of course, they have delicious chemistry and some delightful sex scenes.

I particularly enjoy Kylie’s exploration of psychologically damaged characters, despite the difficulty of believing in three sequential heroines working for the same company who have such messed-up pasts and home lives. She uses both the perps and the family members of the heroines (and sometimes others as well) to examine a variety of mental issues, often with a sympathetic eye.

Another particular joy that I take in this series is the fact that it defies the convention many stories follow in which a woman falls in love and immediately settles down and gives up whatever job it was that previously was so important to her. It’s as though her identity as a lover or wife supplants her career identity. In Brant’s books, that isn’t the case. Her characters go through at least some maneuvering to come up with ways to juggle career and love.

In the last two books I objected to what I saw as a lack of foreshadowing—I very much like to be able to look back at the end of a mystery and, even if I couldn’t guess whodunit, think, “aha! That makes sense!” but I had trouble doing so with Waking Nightmare and Waking Evil because there were so few hints, even in retrospect. That was much better in this book. It’s still walking a fine line, but I felt like it was a little less obtuse.

The other objection I had was the similarities between the first two heroines—it beggared belief to have two heroines, both working for the same company, in similar situations, in subsequent books, who both happened to be phobic due to past traumas. While there’s still some similarity here, the differences are a bit greater. The past trauma is still there, but not the phobia. The characters are also, I think, a little more different in personality (both Cait and Zach) from their predecessors.

Still, I should point out that I enjoy these mysteries and characters enough that even though I had those objections, I rushed to read each book as I got my hands on them—they definitely provided a thrill and plenty of romance and forensics-based action!

Review copy courtesy of The Taunton Press.

Hi, my name is Heather, and I’m addicted to chocolate. I prefer dark to milk, although the new “deep milk” is good, and I’m picky about my whites (most brands taste chalky, but that’s why I stay stocked up on Green & Black’s). I love trying out new and wacky flavor combos like bacon-chocolate, or chocolate with almonds and sea salt (Vosges makes an awesome bar of the latter); or good old-fashioned pairings like chocolate and coconut. Above all, I like to cook with it. My husband and I always keep a few bars around to break up and whisk into a hot mixture of milk and half-and-half, maybe with a dash of liqueur, for hot chocolate, but it’s fun to go wild sometimes instead. And believe me, if you want to go wild with chocolate, this cookbook put together by the editors of Fine Cooking magazine, Absolutely Chocolate: Irresistible Excuses to Indulge, is perfect.

When reviewing cookbooks, I first look for a “standby” recipe that will be easy to judge. Something I’m used to making and know a fair amount about, that the cookbook authors really shouldn’t mess up if they know what they’re doing. In this case, that meant chocolate chip cookies! Specifically, mocha cinnamon chocolate chip cookies. And may I say—WOW. These were so good that I had to toss the extras into the freezer to keep for friends in order to keep my hands off of them. Oh my… it would be so easy to get one out now. No, no, I will resist. I CAN resist.

Next, I look for something fancier, trickier. Something that’ll show off whether or not the cookbook authors really know their stuff. In this case, a pots de creme recipe did the trick beautifully. These are delectable, intense custards that you can make the day before you intend to serve them to guests—and believe me, you will make an impression with these.

Finally, I like to look for something that’s specific to the cookbook—something you aren’t likely to find in its peers. This might or might not be the same as the tricky/fancy recipe; in this case it wasn’t. A recipe that had us fill wonton wrappers with chocolate-hazelnut spread and fry them was surprisingly easy, and it comes with a fantastic orange-cream sauce that’s also incredibly easy. This is one of those “it’ll look like you slaved for hours” recipes that’ll really impress guests, and unlike most fried foods it withstands cooling very well, so you don’t necessarily need to fry it at the very last minute.

Absolutely Chocolate is filled to the brim with cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, puddings, mousses, ice creams, candies, sauces, and more. There’s the usual section at the front about chocolate, but I have to say it’s better than most. For example, there’s an incredibly useful sidebar on the cocoa content of your chocolate, how it will affect your recipes, and how to alter your recipes if you’re going to use chocolates with unusually high cocoa contents. There’s also an extended section on the difference between using cocoa and chocolate in cooking.

I’ve tried a handful of chocolate cookbooks, and this is one of the ones I’d recommend most highly. While the “Death by Chocolate” series is great for folks who enjoy serious kitchen time and complicated recipes, Absolutely Chocolate has plenty of simpler recipes as well. The results are amazing and impressive, and there’s a fantastic array of recipes to choose from. There are a limited number of photographs (there certainly isn’t one for every recipe), but they’re gorgeous and evocative. Recipes are clear and well-ordered, and often include extended sections of tips and instructions to help you out (such as tips for a perfect pots de creme). The cookbook is large, hard-backed, with glossy pages, so it should stay open fairly easily and stand up to much use.

What more could you ask for?

Bonus recipe: When we were making the pots de creme, we wondered how they would be with a fruity/creamy sauce—largely because we happened to have some leftover ingredients from various other recipes the previous week that we thought would make an awesome raspberry sauce. So, here you go:

Empty most or all of a container of creme fraiche into a medium-sized bowl (this comes to a little less than a cup). Whisk in about a quarter cup of raspberry puree (one small container fresh raspberries rinsed, picked through, pureed and pushed through a fine seive). Stir in a handful or two of sliced strawberries, and maple syrup, agave nectar, or brown sugar to taste.

If you can’t find creme fraiche, mix equal parts sour cream and heavy cream.

It’s easy enough to substitute any other berry for the strawberry as you please.

Goes best with a dark, brooding chocolate dessert such as pots de creme or a rich mousse.

Review copy courtesy of The Taunton Press.

Thanksgiving dinner is a tradition for my husband and I. Normally we don’t worry that much about holidays, but when we lived in Boston it was fun to collect up those friends who couldn’t make it home for “turkey day” and feed them at our apartment. We tended to bring together about 5-10 people and made waaay too much food, but that was kind of the point. Now we might not have the huge numbers of people to feed, but we still enjoy finding creative ways to enjoy turkey and the trimmings. Only this year, we’re trying out the latest book to cross our field of vision a bit early, so you’ll be able to pick it up in time for your own feasting if you like the sound of it. It’s a great sacrifice, dear readers, but we’re prepared to make it—for your sakes.

I’m totally failing at sounding serious, aren’t I? Ah well, I never did have a good poker face! Read on for the details of our pre-Thanksgiving experiment with How to Cook a Turkey: And All the Other Trimmings from the editors & contributors of Fine Cooking.

I’ve read plenty of books that included tips for planning a large dinner, or hints for cooking a turkey, etc. This is the first book I’ve found that has been this thorough. There are tips in here I haven’t seen anywhere else (except maybe in a couple of the online articles we posted a few years back)—I certainly haven’t seen all of this information collected in one place before. Whether you need to know how much turkey to buy for your number of guests, or how long to cook a given turkey, or how to ensure that your serving day will be as relaxed and reliable as possible, it’s in here. If you make a tradition out of any kind of recurring large dinners, I highly recommend reading through the materials in this book.

Since we’ve made a ton of turkeys and have pretty much got that down pat (barring unexpected oddities—everyone has an off year), we had to try something new. Thus we ended up making the turkey that’s roasted with bacon strips on top, glazed with maple syrup, stuffed with a cornbread, cranberry, pear, and wild rice stuffing, and served with pan gravy (which, of course, includes cider, pear, and maple/bacon drippings). When you make something like this, you know one of two things will happen: either you’re going to be disappointed, or you’re going to be very, very happy. With those kinds of ingredients there isn’t much room for a middle ground. Let’s just say we were definitely not disappointed! We both love the savory/sweet combination of flavors, and this recipe delivered.

The “ultimate fluffy mashed potatoes” were surprisingly so. They included tips to help you avoid gluey or gummy potatoes, and they included a couple of surprising ingredients (lemon zest? Who knew?!).

The cookbook is great about trying to avoid providing too many oven-based recipes, since oven space will be at a premium, particularly when you’re roasting. We tried a “slow-cooked” broccoli, pancetta, and garlic stovetop recipe that came out particularly well. Despite the minimal amount of effort & ingredients, it was incredibly flavorful.

By far my favorite dish, however, was the cranberry-pear salsa. I was dubious about a cranberry relish-type recipe that used raw cranberries, not to mention bell pepper and hot pepper. But it’s sweet-tart and divine, using both honey and sugar to bring the flavors together! In fact, we might have to make another batch. Hmm…

There are of course some recipes in here for what you might do with turkey leftovers. We decided to try a recipe for turkey cakes with a roasted tomato salsa, because it seemed quite different from the usual fare of faux-Mexican food or soups. What impressed me most about it is that it used flavors and textures that are radically different from the ones you’ll typically find in your Thanksgiving dinner, so it’ll seem new and different after several nights of leftovers.

But dessert—dessert was absolutely the star of the show. Believe it or not, the white chocolate* souffle cakes with chocolate raspberry sauce were surprisingly easy to make. And because they can be refrigerated for up to two days before baking, you just pop them in the oven at the last minute! They form a delicate, divine cakey-puddingy white chocolate dessert, with a tart bittersweet chocolate-raspberry sauce on the bottom. I think I might have died and gone to heaven when I had the first one.

The book is filled with tips and a plethora of creative recipes, and we didn’t have any problems with any of it. The tips are far more thorough than those in other books I’ve tried, the layout is easy to read and make sense of, and beautiful photographs help you through some of the recipe steps.

Add to that the absolutely delightful results, and I don’t think you can go wrong with this one!

*I highly recommend Green & Black’s organic vanilla-flavored white chocolate for ANY recipe calling for white chocolate. We’ve tried a wide variety of white chocolates, and it’s the only one I’ve found that doesn’t taste at least a little bit chalky. However, you might have to reduce any vanilla extract in any recipe you use it in. It also makes awesome “hot chocolate”: Microwave a cup and a half of half-and-half and whole milk until almost boiling; whisk a bar of chopped up G&B white chocolate in until it dissolves; add a tablespoon or two of your favorite liqueur if desired. Serves 2.

[Hey FTC---this is my own opinion. The cookbook is a review cookbook, but this isn't an endorsement, and I've never gotten anything from G&B. I just adore their chocolate.]

Review copy courtesy of Penguin Group.
Also posted on Epinions.com.

I absolutely loved author CJ Lyons’s Warning Signs, and Urgent Care is nearly as wonderful.

Nora Halloran is a charge nurse at Angels of Mercy Medical Center. One of her coworkers was just brutally attacked and killed—and Nora is accused of losing key evidence in the investigation. Worse, Nora recognizes the handiwork of the killer, and is having more than a little trouble coping. She wants to turn to her ex, Seth, for comfort, but she can’t forgive him for his betrayal, and he comes under suspicion as the investigation continues.

Helping Nora are her friends: Lydia is an ER doc who’s hiding from the people who killed her mother when she was a child. Amanda is a med student who’s engaged to be married, trying to save a girl’s life (when she doesn’t even know what’s wrong with her), and in danger of ruining her career by following her conscience. And Gina is struggling to figure out whether she’s happy with the man she wants to marry, and how she can balance her parents’ demands with her job.

CJ’s “Angels of Mercy” novels center around the four women, and it would be best to start from the beginning with Lifelines and Warning Signs. That said, I dove in with the latter of those two and didn’t find it difficult to catch up. I think by the time you get to Urgent Care that would be a little tougher since the relationships between the women and their loved ones have evolved a bit and grown more complex.

The medical material is fascinating. The author doesn’t coddle the reader and explain every term, but the prose flows so well that regardless of this, I didn’t feel lost. (I don’t have the background to evaluate its accuracy, however.)

The personal drama felt a little more scattered than in Warning Signs and a little less focused, but that’s a minor quibble. With four women dealing with love life and family issues, things get a bit hectic—it might have been better to serialize the stories a little more, even if that would be a tad less “realistic.”

The suspense & thriller material is wonderfully handled, and definitely kept me guessing on the edge of my seat. Please note that there’s some very dark and adult material in here, so don’t pick up this book if you aren’t willing to handle that! It deals with trauma of both sexual and non-sexual natures. This material isn’t sensationalized, but it is necessary to the story and the characters.

In particular I enjoy the women of Angels of Mercy. They’re each unique and unusual, with non-stereotypical quirks and foibles. Some of the men are equally interesting, although a few less so—not too unusual with this large a cast, however.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series!

Review copy courtesy of Penguin Group.
Also posted on Epinions.com.

In his “Princess Novels,” author Jim C. Hines explores the truth behind the fairy tale, and what comes after the “happily ever after.” The Stepsister Scheme followed Sleeping Beauty (Talia), Snow White (known simply as Snow), and Cinderella (Danielle) when Danielle’s husband, Armand, was kidnapped. In order to get him back, the three princesses were forced to face some truly perilous foes. What ensued was a wild blend of both the gripping and the hilarious—Hines has a wonderful grasp of the ridiculous without having to sacrifice either beauty or tragedy to achieve it.

In The Mermaid’s Madness, it’s time for Queen Beatrice to welcome the undine (mer-folk) home from their migration, and Danielle must accompany her in order to start learning her future duties. It all goes horribly wrong, however, when it turns out that there’s a new leader of the undine—and Lirea has a serious grudge against the queen. Beatrice has a habit of taking in princesses with problems, and this time is no different—she’s been sheltering a young undine princess named Lannadae.

It isn’t what you think, however. Lannadae is not “the Little Mermaid” of legend; Lirea is. Only Lirea’s tale was far more tragic than the storybooks portrayed it as, and it has had lasting repercussions that could destroy the undine—or rip apart the human nations surrounding them. Soon the princesses find themselves working against time to save Queen Bea’s life, stop Lirea’s ambitious schemes, and keep Lannadae safe. They’re aided by the queen’s ship, carved from a dryad’s tree and captained by that same dryad. Snow is learning to harness and improve her growing powers; Danielle is learning to be a princess instead of a servant; and Talia—well, Talia is still trying to handle her secret and desperate love for someone who will likely never return her feelings.

Casting the Little Mermaid of legend—one of the more tragic and sweet figures of fairy tale history—as an antagonist was a bold move, and one that Hines carries off amazingly well. Her tale is far more complex and interesting than you might expect, and provides the perfect backdrop for our familiar princess trio from the last book.

The characterizations are, as before, gorgeous. Danielle’s attempts to cope with going from servant to princess are at times beautiful, sad, and funny. Snow’s powers come into play more strongly in this tale, and we get to find out some truly horrifying things about how she was raised and why she’s a little messed up in certain ways. As for Talia, while in some ways she always seems to try to fade into the background, her unrequited feelings of love for another (sorry to be circumspect, but anyone who hasn’t read the first book shouldn’t have it spoiled for them) are a thread that wends throughout this entire book.

I’m impressed by the author’s ability to balance humor and tragedy. Lirea’s tale is truly tragic; Queen Bea’s situation creates a ton of tension; Talia’s feelings are incredibly sad. Yet Hines can still weave fantastically creative humor (the dryad and her ship blew me away) and butt-kicking action into the mix without unbalancing things at all. Add on top of that a complex plot with plenty of surprises in store, and it’s hard to go wrong with this book!

Review book courtesy of Macmillan Group

Catrinna de’ Medici’s life seems to be on the fast track to power; even though her parents have died and she’s still a young girl, she is going to be the ruler of Florence when she becomes of age. Unrest and rebellion, however, will separate her from her family, but she has an unlikely ally—an astrologer named Cosimo Ruggieri, who through the use of his knowledge tries to protect her for the future he sees mapped out for her in the stars. When Catrinna finds herself under the protective wing of the Pope, she begins to look forward to the day when she will marry and take her place as the ruler of Florence. But the Pope has other plans. She finds herself married to Henry, Duke of Orleans, and her name becomes Catherine. Battling her husband’s seeming indifference and hostile court factions, she seeks to prevent visions of blood and death that she sees. When Henry is crowned King of France, it seems that she may finally have the means of preventing bloodshed. But the more she fights her visions, the closer they seem to come. Will she be able to avert the tide, or will blood spill over the land of France?

One of the things that I really enjoyed about reading The Devil’s Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici was the way that Ms. Kalogridis was able to make the time period come to life. Her description of the Pope’s office and the paintings that adorn it make me wish that I could see it as Catherine saw it, untouched by the five hundred years that have passed since. And descriptions of the differences between Italian and French fashions has piqued my interest. I only recently became aware of the different fashions of the Middle Ages, and it seems there’s even more variety in the Renaissance. One of the things that Catherine talks about over the course of the novel that really helped me relate to her, however, was her love of books and learning. In particular, a trilogy of books by an author named Ficino helps to shape Catherine’s understanding of astrology, and I was impressed to find that the books Catherine read were real. It is these details, among so many others, that helped to immerse me in Catherine’s story and world.

Ms. Kalogridis paints a remarkably vivid portrait not only of sixteenth-century life, but of sixteenth-century politics as well. From Catherine’s aunt and uncle being ousted from Florence, to the Pope’s arranged marriage for her, to her husband Henry’s ascent to the kingship, politics help to drive the story forward. For the most part, these are easily explained to the reader as Catherine understands them, but there was one instance where I was a little bit lost [Note: the rest of this paragraph might contain some spoilers, so jump ahead to the next if you want to be sure to avoid them]. Catherine’s third son, Edouard comes into possession of a note detailing a plot against the royal family, and so she and her son the King order execution orders drawn up for the ringleaders of the plot. Just as the carrying out of these orders begins, she finds out through a letter that one of the doomed men must be saved, and so she ventures out herself to save him. The author of the note (which is a fraud) comes into a position of power at the end of the book, leading to Catherine’s loss of power. What wasn’t clear to me was why Catherine did not suffer other consequences besides the loss of her power. If the author of the note had wanted all of these people of an opposing faction dead, then wouldn’t there have been additional consequences for Catherine? Or was he merely trying to discredit her in the eyes of her subjects? The lack of drastic action would make sense in that case. It left me wondering.

Throughout the politics of Catherine’s life, there’s another thread twined; that of astrology and magic. Catherine dreams of death and bloodshed, but seeks to avert it with the help of Cosimo Ruggieri,  the astrologer who has helped her since she was a girl. The thing that I like about Ms. Kalogridis’ use of both Cosimo and the magic are that both are used sparingly, appearing only when they are really necessary. Catherine does an excellent job of dealing with most of her life, but every once in a while she needs a little extra help. By using Cosimo so sparingly, Ms. Kalogridis keeps the focus on Catherine’s strength and persistence instead of turning the story into that of a woman dependent on magic. A brief note of caution, however; there is one spell that Catherine and Cosimo cast that involves a somewhat graphic description of events. The weak of stomach might want to skip a few pages. It is, however, a well-written scene.

As for Catherine’s dreams of disaster, again Ms. Kalogridis manages to keep them from becoming a litany of doom that makes the reader feel as if Catherine is fighting insurmountable odds. Catherine almost always has some sort of plan to handle situations, or if not, knows where to find help, and so instead the reader is given the feeling that if Catherine works hard enough she will be able to avert the crisis. Ms. Kalogridis keeps the reader wondering if Catherine will succeed, instead of foreshadowing that success or failure are inevitable.

Catherine is a well-developed character, one that was very easy for me to relate to. Her commitment to her country and to preventing her disastrous dreams from coming true were admirable. Throughout the different tragedies and challenges in her life, she remains unbowed. Despite some of the more difficult things that she does to stay in power, she remains likable because the reader understands her motivations. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in Catherine’s world, and meeting all of the different people in her life. This book is like watching history come to life, and is well worth a read.

Review copy (ebook/novella) courtesy of the author.
Available from Samhain Publishing.
Visit Shiloh Walker online.

Greta is on the hunt. She can feel her quarry pulling at her: Mandy, a young woman in trouble—or perhaps a young woman who is trouble. Sometimes it can be hard to tell which until it’s too late. Greta’s job is to keep Mandy from falling prey to evil, and to kill Mandy otherwise. That’s the part of her job that sucks the most. At least she has a few gifts to help her with that job: a bit of an edge in the strength & speed department, not to mention immortality. Oh yeah, and she also has Rip. Rip is like Greta, only he’s in town on his own job. He’s been longing to spend more time with Greta for the last hundred years, however, so he’ll do whatever it takes to make time to help her out. And it’s a good thing, too, because the forces lined up to trap Mandy are awfully tough ones.

Greta and Rip are just two of many—guardian angels who call themselves the Grimm. They’ve covered up their existence by turning their stories into fairy tales, fiction, such as the story of Hansel and Gretel. Only of course, the reality behind the fairy tale is often much, much grimmer than the story.

As is probably obvious by the synopsis above, the premise of Shiloh Walker’s Candy Houses really caught at me. Greta’s tale is far darker and more painful than you’d imagine from the story of Hansel & Gretel, and it’s left her, like many of the Grimm, a bit damaged. Yet how better to empathize with and work to save those who might appeal to demons?

Rip is in love with Greta, and has been for a long time. For her part, she feels a relationship with him would be impossible. He shows so little emotion, and his presence distracts her terribly from her important work. It could never work out—could it?

Mandy is caught in a maelstrom of influences, all of them aimed at her. She’s tough and she’s been hurt, and she has some gifts of her own, but she’s vulnerable. She could open herself up to a demon, or she could do good with what she has. Only she can make that choice, and Greta doesn’t have long to convince her. It was hard enough to convince Greta herself back when the world was older and fairy tales didn’t seem so unlikely, but in the modern era? How could a tale of good vs. evil seem anything but insane to Mandy?

As it is that’s plenty of plot and character to keep a novella hopping, but Shiloh has a few other surprises up her sleeve to keep things interesting. Perhaps the beginning was slightly slow (although that’s nit-picking), and maybe one fight was over a little quickly, but I’m not even sure I’d go that far. The relationship between Rip and Greta is gorgeous. The sex is incredibly hot—frankly I read enough erotic romance that many sex scenes just come off as kind of average by this point, but the ones in this book definitely got to me. I was sniffling when I got to the end of the story. This is a wonderful tale and I’m glad I read it!

[This is one of those rare books that is not a review copy.]
Also posted on Epinions.com.

The Cake Wrecks Blog began when Jen Yates decided to post, for the amusement of herself and a few friends, photos of professional cakes gone “hilariously wrong.” Of course, as occasionally happens on the internet, she’d hit on something that had a far wider audience than she’d imagined. Soon she was getting thousands of hits a day and submissions of “cake wreck” photos from all over the globe—and eventually she even got a book deal. The result of that deal is Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong, a wonderful organized collection of both best-of-the-blog photos (with snarky commentary) and additional material that never made it into the blog.

Whether you prefer the “literal LOLs” (cakes where the decorator took his instructions a little too literally), the “dreaded CCC” (cupcake cake), the “poo phenomenon” (in which decorators don’t seem to notice that piles or extrusions of brown icing look… wrong), “holiday horrors”—it’s all in here, along with plenty more. Creepy cakes; bizarre cakes; the “say what?!” cakes and the “how on earth could the baker not realize how WRONG that is?!” cakes. You’ll read the story of the naked baby carrot jockey that has become the mascot of the blog, and tales such as the bride who said she didn’t care what kind of bachelorette cake she got as long as it wasn’t a penis cake. So of course, she ended up with a cake on which the words “not a penis cake” were immortalized in icing.

Mind you, Cake Wrecks wasn’t created to be mean to bakers. Jen anonymizes the wrecks, and sometimes bakers actually deliberately share their own wrecks with her. She also isn’t going to be mean to your Aunt Edna, who once baked a cake for your birthday because your mom asked her to; these are professional wrecks, where either the bakers should have known better, or the customer specifically asked for something bizarre.

The book includes some fun background and extra tidbits on how the blog started, what it’s been like running it and dealing with issues like trolls, how Jen defines a wreck, and so on. Jen’s writerly voice is entertaining no matter what she’s writing about, so this material is every bit as enjoyable as the wrecks themselves.

Some of the photos are of imperfect quality, but keep in mind that often they were snapped by cell-phone in a hurry while dodging an angry bakery manager. In a way it just adds that much atmosphere and silly authenticity to the whole thing.

My personal suggestion: keep this book around for any occasion on which you’re feeling a little down. Pick it up, open to a random page, read about a few wrecks, look at the wacky photos, and laughter will almost certainly pick up your spirits!

I was originally hoping to go to a Maryland signing of the book on Tuesday, but then Jen’s husband came down with a seriously dangerous set of illnesses and they had to cut the book tour short for a hospital stay! Please wish them well; believe it or not they’re trying to reschedule the rest of the tour. Now that’s dedication! Hopefully I’ll be able to make it to the reschedule, and come back to insert a few photos taken at the event. In the meantime, if you’re still uncertain as to whether or not you want to buy the book, go look at a few entries of the Cake Wrecks Blog! I have a feeling you’ll immediately want the book, too.

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group.
Also posted on Epinions.com.

Ramsey Clark is a forensic investigator working with the infamous group dubbed the “mindhunters” by the media. She’s called in to help when a woman is found dead in Buffalo Springs, Tennessee. It seems the locals believe in a legend involving red mist and a curse, and the authorities are anxious to solve the brutal crime quickly before it becomes more of a media circus than it already has.

Ramsey has no interest whatsoever in paranormal explanations, and is nothing but irritated by handsome Devlin Stryker, a writer and parapsychologist determined to follow along as she conducts her investigation. It hardly helps her irritation that the locals don’t like talking to outsiders, and she ends up needing Devlin’s help to get them to open up to her. And she’d better hurry—historically the deaths have always come in threes, and another girl is about to disappear!

There’s one thing about Kylie Brant’s Waking Evil that wouldn’t bother me if I read it as a stand-alone book, but that struck me as unfortunate since I read it as a follow-on to her Waking Nightmare. While the personalities and backgrounds of Ramsey Clark and Abbie Philips have many differences, the similarities are so broad, obvious, and unlikely that when presented in sequels, it stretches belief. It’s hard to buy into the idea that Raiker happened to hire two women for his company who just happen to have deep-seated phobias based in childhood traumas that will be conveniently brought into play while they work a case with a handsome man. As much as I love the stories and characters as individual entities, I really hope Brant does something a bit different with the next one, because the more such “coincidences” she strings into a line, the less believable it feels.

Once again Brant presents us with complex, three-dimensional, fascinating characters. Dev usually spends his time debunking parapsychology incidents, but believes there are some truly inexplicable things in the world. Ramsey struggles to be the consummate cool professional, to leave behind as much of her trailer trash background as possible. Neither of them is interested in starting up a relationship, but they can’t help finding each other attractive, and they slowly wear down each other’s defenses, albeit somewhat unwillingly.

The background on the legend and the cyclical deaths is fascinating and imaginative, and it unfurls nicely throughout the book. My only problem with it was that, once again, the actual identity of the killer seems to lack adequate foreshadowing. I hate getting to that point in a novel and finding myself saying, “huh?” (I don’t mind as long as I can look back and see, “oh, yeah, it really WAS him,” but I don’t like feeling that there weren’t enough clues.) Once again I can sort of see where the author probably felt she was putting clues in, but they don’t feel adequate to the task. Again, however, take this with a grain of salt, just as I said last time: after all, this is a hard line to draw and it’ll fall to a different place with each reader.

Some might be put off by the fact that Waking Nightmare was entirely non-paranormal, whereas that doesn’t appear to be the case here. However, personally I found that the paranormal aspects of Waking Evil were equivocal enough and minor enough that they weren’t jarring.

There are a couple of minor aspects of Brant’s sex scenes that I find awkward (”tongues and teeth clashing” gives me an image of lovers painfully bumping their teeth together!) or a bit over the top, but everyone’s taste is a bit different, and her characters are certainly enthusiastic!

The mystery itself and the tense race to save lives is the true high of the book, in my opinion. Brant does a great job with pacing and tension!

[Standard adult material disclaimer: explicit sex between romantic leads; explicit dark subject matter.]