Jared is one of the more powerful members of the Blood, the vaguely aristocratic magic-wielding rulers of the lands he lives in. After a life-alteringly bad choice in his teens, Jared has become a pleasure slave for the Queens and Witches of Hayll. After nine years of bowing to sadistic whims, he does something that Continue Reading…
**Possible spoilers for the first two in the series, Daughter of the Blood and Heir to the Shadows.** The evil queens, Dorothea and Hekatah, are trying to force a war and so gain control of Jaenelle. But they have no idea how strong she is or the lengths she is willing to go to in Continue Reading…
**Very minor spoilers for Big Stone Gap** Ave Maria has been married for eight years now. She and her husband have a beautiful daughter, but they’ve also had some very difficult times. Now Ave feels that they’re growing apart. Everyday life has gotten in the way of love, and it’s time for both of them Continue Reading…
Ave Maria (Please don’t call her Ava) Mulligan has lived all her life in Big Stone Gap in the mountains of Virginia. Yet she’s still seen as a “furriner” by everyone else because her mother was from Italy. Ave is sort of a “pillar of the community”; she’s the town pharmacist, she makes house calls, Continue Reading…
Definite spoilers for Daughter of the Blood. At the end of the first book, Jaenelle is broken and Daemon isn’t in much better shape. Jaenelle has to heal in this book and come to terms with what she is. Luckily, she’s surrounded by caring friends who are willing to protect her and push her as Continue Reading…
This is primarily the story of Anna Karenina’s troubled affair with Alexey Vronsky. It’s also the story of Konstantin Levin’s search for love and truth in society. While reading this book, I kept wishing that I could just read a “good parts version” as William Goldman called The Princess Bride. I kept getting bogged down Continue Reading…
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR SHIVER** You have got to be kidding me. This is where it ends? Beck has made some new wolves to care for the pack now that the older members are not shifting into humans anymore. One of the new wolves is Cole St. Clair, a gorgeous rock star. It’s not exactly easy Continue Reading…
Young Tristran Thorn (who’s birth is maybe not as…aboveboard…as Victorian society would like) is desperately in love with Victoria Forester. He screws up his courage one night to ask her to kiss him or marry him or just–something! He is met with laughter. In desperation, he offers to slay dragons and bring back treasures for Continue Reading…
At the tender age of 12, Polly Madassa has discovered Jane Austen and fallen hopelessly in love. Convinced that she’s an Austen heroine born in the wrong time, Polly walks around her modern town speaking in Austen’s flowery prose. She’s only read Pride and Prejudice, and so has not learned Emma‘s lesson about meddling. Polly Continue Reading…
Dempsey Killebrew is having a very bad day. She and her handsome boss, Alex, are all over the evening news, smack in the center of a political scandal. They’re lobbyists accused of buying a Congressman’s votes with a vacation to the Bahamas and, um, hookers. Not the situation that a rising young lawyer wants to Continue Reading…
This started out a little slow for me. It dragged along for about the first 150 pages. Then the action started and I couldn’t put it down. To oversimplify the plot, this is the story of Phèdre, a masochist who sleeps with her patrons not only for money, but also for state secrets. So, there were […]