Friday Fill - ins 61

Hey!  It's Friday and that means Friday Fill-ins time!

And...here we go!

1. I'm going quietly crazy, I think.

2. Life is about adventure and daring.

3. Perhaps today you can make it a point to experience a little of both

4. Celebrate the  true adventurer’s spirit.

5. Compassion is at the heart of all great deeds... or should be.

6. Keep going no matter how difficult.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to the horse show, tomorrow my plans include sleeping after working the night shift and Sunday, I want to relax!

Stories from my childhood...

When I was a child, things were a lot different. Life was different. It was simpler, easier, freer.

During the summer, we would leave the house after dinner, simply telling the parents that we would be in the neighborhood, and we'd hit the streets to play.

At times, we'd hang out in someone's yard, playing tag and red rover and freeze tag. We'd have water fights and marathon games of hide and seek.

Other times, we'd wander; maybe to the juinor high school across the street to play in the secluded cracks and crevices the building gave us. One little corner would be a dungeon, another a secret hide-out. We did the same at a local gothic-style church, which became a castle. We were limited only by our imagination.

We had a lot of fun and never once worried about whether or not we were safe. As long as we didn't do anything stupid to risk injury safety wasn't a factor.

Our bikes, which every kid had, went home when the street lights came on but we usually stayed out for a bit longer. I seem to remember ten being the time we had to head home.

We were safe and we had a blast.

Things have changed so much and I find myself pondering whether those changes have been for the good. It may be naive to want to go back to those simpler days, but at times I do.

One of my most cherished memories from back then was the man in the moon.

Do you see him up there, in that photograph?

He was the benevolent face that watched us through all our antics. When we flopped down on the grass after running ourselves out playing tag, we would look up and ponder the nature of him, the moon, and the universe.

The man in the moon would watch and sometimes, it looked like he was winking his eye at us.

Kids today have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention him. All they see is the moon, a place we've been, a known entity.

Where I once saw endless possibilities, they see nothing. Kids don't play outside any more. Not like we did. Not with the freedom we had.

Call me naive, but I wish I could give those days back to the kids these days, man in the moon and all.

Sunday Sifting Thoughts...

You'd think after posting as many reviews as I have today that I'd be posted out but I'm not. So, clearly it's time for some meandering thoughts...

I'm still recovering from my 18 hour, no sleep work experience. At 51 I'm finding that there are more and more things I did at a younger age that I can no longer handle. Going as long as I did without sleep is diffently one of them. Dang. Where did those days go when I could get three hours of sleep and be rarin' to go go? *Sigh*

One good thing, I guess? The dog is slowing down with me... but that's a double-edge sword if ever there was one.

The cats? Well, when I got home from work Saturday morning, I found a dead bird in my living room. Maddie, my darlin', I know you're a good little hunter but dang. Leave the dead things outside...

Best thing to happen last week? One of my favorite authors was in town. Steven Hamilton, who writes the Alex McKnight series set in my neck-of-the-woods, stopped by on a tour. I got him to sign his latest book, "The Lock Artist" which was wonderful, and we were able to chat for a bit. He's a great guy and I enjoy our brief conversations. I forgot, however, to ask him if he had any more recommendations, book-wise. He recommended William Kent Kruger to me and I'm thrilled he did.

This summer has been a strange one, for one reason - no horse shows. We've all settled into a life without the Golden Boy, my niece's horse Sonny, but it seems awfully odd to not be at the ring once a month. I don't know if I've posted a photo of the niece's new baby, Levi, but here's one just because:

He's a real sweetie-pie but not quite show ready. Maybe by the end of the season.

So, that's about it on a beautiful, sunny, Sunday. My Detroit Tigers are about to lose another one so I think I'm going to drag the dog down to the river for a swim.

I hope y'all are having a great day.

Book Review: Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn
Tor
334 pages
Copyright 2010

Kitty Norville, late night DJ, werewolf, and pack leader has a full life managing her rising stardom on her radio show "The Midnight Hour", her role as pack alpha, and her marriage to Ben, attorney and fellow werewolf and the return of Cormac, Ben's 'brother' and former bounty hunter, from prison.

Things become more complicated when a topic on her radio show leads to her being sued by CEO Harold Franklin after she wonders if his change of Speedy Marts is somehow connected to the supernatural.

Then a friend who runs the NIH's Study of Paranatural Biology contacts her, seeking her help with three soldiers, recently returned from Afghanistan. The men happen to be part of a secret experiment that not even the army knew was taking place; an experiment that led to them becoming werewolves... highly aggressive, post-traumatic, unable to control their shapeshifter tendencies werewolves.

As Kitty tries to cope with the lawsuit and deal with the rogue wolves she also finds herself trying to figure out what the heck is up with Cormac, who seems to have come out of prison with a split-personality.

I liked this one a lot more than the previous title in the series, Kitty's House of Horrors. Kitty and Ben are a great couple and I'm thrilled that Cormac is back. The interaction with the rogue wolves is tense and dramatic. The intrigue with the Speedy Marts is an interesting second story line and Vaughn wraps it all up very well.

Recommendation: Finally, a new book in a much-loved series that didn't disappoint me. I think Vaughn handles the shapeshift world as well as anyone so if you like werewolves, you'll probably enjoy hers.

Book Reviews: Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike by Patgricia Briggs

Raven's Shadow by Patricia Briggs
Ace
334 Pages
Copyright 2994

From the back of the book:

For many years, the city of Colossae was a haven of magical study. As generations of wizards pushed the limits of their abilities, an evil entity was unleashed that could only be contained by the sacrifice of their city. From the ashes of Colossae, the Travelers emerged - roaming the world to ensure that the Stalker would remain imprisioned forever...

Seraph is a Raven mage and among the last of the Travelers. Unwelcome among those who fear magic, the wizard clans have been decimated by the very people they've sworn to protect. But Seraph is spared a similar fate by the ex-soldier Tier - and together they build a life where she is no longer burdened by her people's responsibility.

But now Tier is missing - or dead - and Serpah's reprieve from her duty is over. Using her magic to discover her husband's fate, Seraph realizes the Stalker's prison is weakening - and only she can fulfill her ancestor's oath to protect humanity from destruction...

Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs
Ace
381 Pages
Copyright 2005

From the back of the book:

Seraph is among the last of the Traveler's, those who strive to destroy the dark magic released by their ancestors' mistakes. Seraph tried to escape her people's duty and live a quiet life, until evil found her...

A new force of darkness called the Shadowed walks the land, feeding on death, destruction, and the sleeping Stalker's power. he plans to wake the Stalker, wreaking untold havoc, but he needs those who bear the Travelers' magic to release the dark good... and he has his sights set on Seraph and her family.

Now Seraph must use all her cunning and ability as a Raven mage to track down the Shadowed and strike against him before it is to late...

These books comprise the Raven Duology series by Patricia Briggs, who continues to cement herself high on my list of favorite authors. I adore her Mercy Thompson series and her Alpha and Omega series. I want a sequel to her "When Demons Walk" novel. This series, short as it is, is right up there with the others.

Seraph, when she meets Tier, is young and her brother has just been killed by a group of villagers who hate Travelers. He rescues her and in a series of events, they wind up marrying, not out of love but to save each other from fates they don't want.

Years later, three children in the mix, Tier goes missing. Seraph and her children are supposed to believe him dead but they are each blessed with mage talent and the illusion fails. It sets Seraph and two of her children on Tier's trail where they all will run into the fate Seraph and Tier had tried so hard to avoid.

Book Two, continues the saga but this time, Seraph, Tier, their children, and the Emperor they helped save in Book One are facing a greater evil than ever before; an evil that wishes to destroy everything.

So, what else can I say? I love the characters - all of them. Seraph is tough and cranky. She is driven by the weight of her destiny on her shoulders. She loves her children and Tier fiercely and will do anything to save them, even confront the destiny she wanted to avoid.

Tier is a soldier - weary of fighting, wanting only the quiet life of a farmer. When he finds himself a pawn in an evil game, however, he becomes the soldier once again and saves not only himself but the Emporer and the Empire and then, the entire world.

Briggs has the ability to build a world where magic exists and seems completely natural. Her people are real - they have the same strengths and weaknesses that people have. Seraph, for all her abilities, is as flawed as anyone else. The secondary characters are well drawn and strong enough to carry their own stories, which I would love to see.

I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy but drifted away due to some of the trends that developed. Briggs writes fantasy in the way I grew up loving and I'm thrilled to be discovering that.

Recommendation: It's an epic story of good vs evil, characters fighting for what's right in spite of the cost, and it is a love story on several levels. If that's your cup of tea, give 'em a try. It's a grand journey.

Book Review: Dead in The Family by Charlaine Harris

Dead in The Family by Charlaine Harris
Penguin
311 Pages
Copyright 2010

Sookie Stackhouse has had a rough time lately. A war between vampire clans. A war involving the shapeshifters. And a fairy war during which she was kidnapped and tortured. She's lost friends and family and she's hurting.

Now, just when she's starting to recover, things with Eric become complicated with the arrival of his vampire maker and a young, psychotic vampire who might be a threat to everyone. Add in the body left on her property by someone looking to tangle Sookie up with the police, the reaction of people to the fact that shapeshifters are real, and her fairy cousin living upstairs and it doesn't look like things are going to settle down any time soon.

So, this is another of the Sookie stories that has seemed uneven and choppy. Almost like a series of vignettes instead of a cohesive story. And, as I'm writing this, a thought has occurred to me - could the success of 'True Blood' have anything to do with this? Could the TV Sookie be influencing the written Sookie? I'm not sure but it doesn't seem impossible.

Recommendation: So-so. It took me a lot longer to read than her books in the past have and I'm not sure I'll buy the next one. But, I can and do recommend the earlier books in the series. They were great.

Book Review: Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
St Martin's Press
309 Pages
Copyright 2010

Stephanie Plum is back. This time, she is trying to rescue her cousin and employer, Vincent Plum. The less than ethical bailbondsman is $786,000 in debt to a mobster and the mobster wants his money. Vinnie's gone missing and Stephanie, Lula, and Connie are determined to get him back in order to keep their jobs.

Toss in a splash of Mooner, a Bulgarian madman, and an epic battle involving Hobbits and you have an entertaining summer beach read.

However... and I hate the fact that there is a however here. Some of the antics are getting old. Morelli and Stephanie are on the outs, which means she's once again cozying up to Ranger. Plus she's still borderline incompetent when it comes to dealing with skips. I can understand why she can't stay away from Ranger, but his hanging around her is starting to irritate me just a little. He needs to move on. Morelli and Stephanie need to settle their problems or move on. And dang it, Stephanie needs to get serious about her job or find something less dangerous.

In fact, Stephanie says it herself:

I pulled to the curb in front of the bonds office at precisely nine o'clock. Connie was already there, and Lula slid to a stop behind me. I was dressed in black. I hadt a loaded gun pressed against my backbone, stuck into the back of my jeans. I had pepper spray in my pocket. I had my cell phone clipped to my jeans waistband, set to dial Rangeman. I had a stun gun also clipped to my jeans waistband. And I had premonitions of disaster. I had no confidence in the mission. Truth is, we sucked at this stuff. We were the Three Stooges of Camp Commando. The only reason I was attempting it was because I knew Chet would spot me on Stark Street and sent out a backup Rangeman car.

She's right - they suck at that kind of stuff and that's the growing problem with the series.

Recommendation: The sixteenth book in the series is pretty much like the fifteen before it; funny and entertaining (Grandma Mazur is still a hoot) but we've been here and done this before. If you're a fan, give it a go but don't expect anything new.

These are the days...

What's the rest of that saying?

That try a man's soul?

Is it even a saying?

Anyway, I had one of those days the other day.

I got up at around 1:00 on Wednesday. I'm working nights right now, so I slept from about 8:00 until about 1:00 in the afternoon. Five hours of sleep isn't much but there are days like that. You just can't sleep.

I went to work at 11:00 Wednesday night.

At 5:50 in the morning my day got difficult. My relief called in sick.

I cannot leave my job until someone comes in to take my place. I called the part-timers. They weren't available. I called the one officer who was on his days off. He was out-of-town for the day with his kids.

I was stuck.

At noon, things got worse.

The afternoon officer called to say he'd hurt his back sleeping and had a doctor's appointment and could be in until 6:00 at the earliest. Then, he called back, before his appointment, to say he wouldn't be in at all.

One part time officer said he could be in by 4:30 and stay until midnight... giving me 7 and 1/2 hours off before I would've had to be back to work.

Seven and a half hours after working 17 and a half hours.

I called the boss and told her I couldn't do it. It was impossible and she couldn't expect me to do it. She reluctantly agreed.

The part timer came in at 4:30ish. I left for home at 5:00.

Eighteen hours.

I have no idea how they covered the night shift but after 18 hours, I'd done all that I could do.

Book Review: Killing Floor by Lee Child

Killing Floor by Lee Child
Jove
524 Pages
Copyright 1997

From the back of the book:

Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He's just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he's arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn't kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn't stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.

Okay, I like Jack Reacher. For the most part. He's sort of an American version of James Bond, without the government backing. He's just trying to live his own life, free for the first time in a very long time to do what he wants.

Margrave, Georgia, is a picture perfect town, rotten to the core. When they arrest Reacher for a murder he didn't commit, he proceeds to turn the town upside down until he discovers exactly what is buried beneath the facade.

My problems with the book, however, grew as the story unfolded. Without giving anything away, the story involves the death of a federal agent, one working on a huge investigation, yet when he is killed, the Feds do nothing. Um, sorry, but no. The Feds would swoop in and take over in a heartbeat. There are also some difficult to swallow developments that stretch credibility a bit more. But in spite of that, I continued to read it to see how it all came out.

Recommendation: Despite the flaws, it isn't a bad story and I'll be looking to read the next in the series, when I get the chance.

Book Review: The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews

Book One: Magic Bites
Ace
260 Pages
Copyright 2007

Kate Daniels lives in a world where Magic and technology compete with each other, one not working when the other holds sway. Magic, however, is slowly destroying technology, reducing buildings in Atlanta of the future to rubble and rendering technology - lights, phones, cars - unfunctional.

It also leaves behind varying degrees of paranormal problems. Kate, a mercenary, makes a living dealing with those problems. Her world, however, is turned upside down when she is informed that her guardian has been murdered. When she sets out to avenge his death, she runs into complications, the least of which is the Beast Lord, leader of The Pack, the loose conglomerate of shapeshifters that are a powerful presence in the city. Throw in vampires that are little more than mindless drones controlled by the Masters of the Dead, and a mysterious group known as "The People" and Kate's plate is definitely full, especially with the secret she is guarding with her very life, the secret that would make her a target of a very powerful enemy.

Book Two: Magic Burns
Ace
260 Pages
Copyright 2008

Magic is on the rise in the city of Atlanta, engulfing everything in what is known as a flare, a time when magic runs rampant and nothing is as it should be.

Kate, against her better judgement, is hired by The Pack to retrieve a series of maps, which turns out to be little more than the tip of the iceberg because, during a flare, gods and goddesses can manifest and battle for power. The maps, Kate soon learns, are part of an epic battle between two gods, each hoping for rebirth. Survival itself is at stake, not only for Kate, but for the entire city.

Book Three: Magic Strikes
Ace
310 Pages
Copyright 2009

Kate, in her unoffical role as liaison for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid is asked to investigate a fight at a bar between shapeshifters and necromancers. Things, however, take a bizarre twist, even for Kate, when she learns that a strange figure at the scene was heard offering to make a shapeshifter a god. The shapeshifter ends up dead in the parking lot, a crowbar through his mouth, his corpse consumed by a virulent disease.

Things go from bad to worse when Kate realizes the force behind the bizarre occurences has been around for thousands of years and her presence threatens the one secret Kate has spent her life protecting.

Book Four: Magic Bleeds
Ace
349 Pages
Copyright 2010

Derek, a young shapeshifter belonging to The Pack, is one of a few people Kate calls a friend, so when he is found brutally beaten and near death, Kate takes it personally. Her investigation leads her to the Midnight Games, a no-holds-barred, supernatural cage fight tournament and when she joins forces with Jim, the Pack's security chief, to uncover what happened and put an end to it, she places herself on a collision course with Curran, Beast Lord and the one man who seems able to get around all of Kate's defenses and under her skin.  Things are about to change, for good...

So, four books read in a span of about six days. That, for me, is the sign of an excellent series, especially since I found myself both wanting to read them non-stop and wanting to take my time to savor and enjoy them.

I read them non-stop and enjoyed every minute of the adventures.

Kate Daniels is a strong, flawed individual with a huge secret she has spent her life keeping. Consuled by her father and mentor to always be on guard and to never let anyone in, she is a solitary soul, intent on building her strength and biding her time until she can deal with that secret.

Curran, were-lion and Beast Master, is not a man to be taken lightly, yet Kate seems to do just that. On their first meeting, she taunts him with 'here, kitty, kitty, kitty' and their relationship is off to a rocky start. But, Curran is a man accustomed to getting what he wants . . . and that may very well be Kate.

Vampires in this universe are mindless parasites, existing to do nothing but feed their bloodlust. They are skeletal, insect-like creatures, controlled by the Masters of the Dead, a powerful group of necromancers that control them telepathically, using them as expendable drones.

Andrews has built a solid world, with rules that make sense and characters that don't, which makes them fully developed and worth liking. Kate and Curran are both strong-willed, honorable, and flawed. The secondary characters are well developed and intriguing. There were no missteps, no sour notes in any of the books.

Oh, one side note - Ilona Andrews is actually two people, Gordon and Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife team that crafts amazing worlds and stories.

Recommendation: If you like tales of magic populated with strong, well-developed characters, give this series a try. I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series... whenever it comes out.

Book Review: The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
HarperCollins
400 Pages
Copyright 2010

Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Tori are back in the final chapter of the Darkest Powers Trilogy. They're still on the run, still don't quite know who to trust, not even when it comes to each other, and they're still trying to sort their ever changing emotions out.

Oh, and the evil Edison group is still chasing them.

While I enjoyed the first two books in this series immensely, this one left me less than thrilled.

It felt too . . . jumbled, too mish-mashy for my tastes. Things weren't explained as fully as I liked.

I know Armstrong was probably trying to tie this series in with the next YA series set in the same universe (with different characters) and her adult Otherworld series but it made this one less than her best.

Recommendation: As I've said, I enjoyed the first two and can still recommend the series but this one isn't up to snuff. At least not for me.

All right, time to quite procrastinating...

So, be prepared for a slew of book reviews. I need to get them done and I've got a couple of amazing books I want to talk about. Seriously wonderful books, if you like paranormal stories.

The so-so ones will probably get the speed review but the others will get longer ones.

Just to warn you.

Happy Fourth of July

Happy 234th Birthday, America!