Book Critic
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Review: Shades of Milk and Honey (Shades of Milk and Honey #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal
Woven intricately out of the ether, Mary Robinette Kowal creates and exhilarating new world of enchantment that will please Jane Austen fans and illusionist fiction fans alike. In the Regency era, Dorchester countryside, Jane and Melody Ellsworth are as opposite as any two sisters can be. While Melody is beautiful and charming, Jane is plain and lacks the feminine charms to secure a husband. Almost a confirmed spinster, Jane possesses other talents that might make her appealing to the right man…..she is a glamourist. Well accomplished in the art of glamour, Jane captures the imagination of all that she meets….wow people with her skills, but it is Melody the eligible bachelors are…
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Review: Wizard’s First Rule (Sword of Truth #1) by Terry Goodkind
Wizard’s first rule: people are stupid. Richard Cypher is brooding over the murder of his father in the woods surrounding his house when he glimpses a woman blazing quite the trail behind her. Intrigued, Richard starts following her. What he finds is an unexpected ambush meant to catch the lovely women, Kahlan, unaware. On instinct Richard feels it is his duty to save her from the ambush and protect her. There is no denying the confidence radiating from Kahlan. Though she is beautiful, Richard recognizes she is much more than just that. He is drawn to her strength…she is mesmerizing. He would love nothing move than to save her and…
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Review: Crushed Seraphim by Debra Anastasia
The Devil made me read it! The Devil, AKA: Satan Jack, guards the gates of hell, admitting all the evil this world has to give. While Satan Jack sucks down cigarettes and souls, Seraph Emma is being tossed out of Heaven. Emma is sent as a Christmas Angel to the lost, self-loathing vampire, Jason, in hopes of redeeming his soul. The task seems impossible but soon the vampire begins to come around and have faith. In Heaven, a rogue angel (Everett) partners with the Devil to trap God in Hell leaving himself in charge of Heaven. With God trapped, Everett begins tossing al the seraphim out of Heaven and unleashing unthinkable…
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Review: Full Dark House (Bryant and May #1) by Christopher Fowler
Modern day London is rocked by a bombing, killing a senior police detective. A detective that happens to be head of the special unit of the force: The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU). Arthur Bryant was working late on an old case for his memoirs on a Sunday when the bomb exploded. Ironically he survived the Blitz of the 1940’s only to be blown up in his office decades later. His partner and fellow head of the PCU, John May, can’t help but wonder if the modern day bombing is somehow linked to their first case together at PCU back in 1940. Now in his 80’s May must try to find…
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Review: The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti
With a lush, enticing cover The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti can’t help but catch the eye. The cover conjures images of a romantic work of historic fiction, filled with extravagance and richness. The novel does deliver in that way. France is ushering in a new era, set in the years immediately before the Franco-Prussian War era (1870’s), the book follows the life of Eugenie Rigault who was born in the foie gras country region of France. There she meets a gentleman that she falls in love with and gives him her heart and body. They soon make plans to move to Paris where the man promises to ‘take…
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Review: Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth
A single choice can transform you. One choice can destroy you. On Choosing Day, the people of five different factions make a choice that will change their lives. You can choose to leave your old faction behind in favor of a new one, but you will forever be bound to your new faction so it is not a choice one makes rashly. If you fail to meet the initiation for each faction, you become Factionless. Tris Prior is different. She is Divergent and her choices destroy her. Tris is in a dark place. Shas witnessed unspeakable horrors and is struggling to cope with the destruction and choices she has made.…
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Review: Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by E. L. James
I decided it was time to indulge to my inner curiosity about the wildly popular series Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. After all, what kind of book reviewer would I be if I didn’t at least glance at the best seller list once in a while? This book has been burning up the Amazon bestseller list and the NY Times….to mention I get asked a million times a week if I have read the book. From the other reviews I had read, it seems as though you either like the book or you hate it. There is no denying that writing a book like the controversial Fifty Shades…
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Review: Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris
The Southern Vampire Mystery Series prepares to meet the true death. In the latest Sookie Stackhouse installment, Deadlocked, writer Charlaine Harris seems to be tying up a lot of loose ends in preparation for the final installment due out next year (2013). The last few books have sort of dwindled in excitement and interest for me….particularly All Dead in the Family (Book 10) and Dead Reckoning (Book 11) so I’ll be honest I didn’t have high expectations for this installment. I was pleasantly surprised with the way Deadlock unfolded. I didn’t feel the need to devour the book rapidly…though I did finish it quickly, I didn’t feel like every page…
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Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
All things have a way of coming back to us in the end. Even if just as a memory from long ago, they are still with us….always. Memories are a funny thing. How accurate are your memories? Has your subconscious twisted your memories and changed the from what really happened to what you remember? How much can you truly trust your memory? Those little moments of déjà vu, was it just that or perhaps you had really been there before in a past life. What recalls a memory most to you, scent? Sound? A place? There is much that science doesn’t know about memory and much that simply cannot be…
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Review: Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame
All secrets have a way of coming out in the end. Every family has their own secrets that they would rather not become public knowledge….but when your family is rich….the gossip columns love nothing better than a juicy family secret. At Wentworth Hall, while family fortune might be in short supply….juicy secrets are not. Maggie Darlington has just returned from a year abroad in France with her mother and new born baby brother and his French nanny. While abroad Maggie has matured, almost beyond recognition….. she has cast off her girlish styles, activities, and friends. The once spirited, will-full teen has now conformed into a model young woman and with…