more SF & Fantasy

Unfortunately not an especially thrilling bunch :(

Cauldron by Jack McDevitt - A failing space program gets a boost from a new star drive  and two veteran pilots get to return to deep space to test the drive and investigate some mysterious space objects. Vague description, I know :)  but the detail is too long. Book is readable and enjoyable, but has very little zip (I was going to say 'drive', but decided not to go there). Very slow throughout, and then the main mystery of the omegas is handled very quickly.  For fans mostly.

The Exchange Student by Kate Gilmore - Talk about a foreign exchange student! Fen is an alien from Chela, one of nine teen Chelans sent to Earth to live with human families and learn about life here. 16 year old Daria isn't thrilled to have Fen come into her home, but when she realizes he is as much an animal lover as she is, she opens up. She is a registered zookeeper, helping to breed endangered animals. But Fen and friends do have an ulterior motive. Which, thankfully, isn't the cliched 'eating humans' motive - though, at points, I did wish it was(Daria's sister is a stereotypical fashion fanatic teenager). Nice stuff about animals and ecological disasters.    (YAC)

Tracing the Shadow by Sarah Ash - Plot is extremely complex. Interesting characters, nice magical feel with some very different types of magic. Some good action, but loads of explication. Almost too many characters. Felt like more of a setup for the next book(s). Would be interested in the next one and in her other books. Good writing.

Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce - First the purely silly - great cover to the hardback and I love the author's first name (yes, I'm a Ladyhawke fan & a Guy Gavriel Kay fan). Another complex plot, with good characters, with way too much explication as compared to the action. Some very inventive, original ideas that could have used some better editing. But would be interesting in at least looking at the next one.  (YAC)

all books: 100 books

2 thrillers, 1 crime fiction

all authors I've read before - all good, but none their best.

Delusion by Peter Abrahams - Nell Jarreau's world gets turned upside down when Alvin Dupree is set free. Her eyewitness testimony is what sent him to prison, but in the aftermath of a recent hurricane, a videotape was found in a police locker that proved he couldn't have been the man who murdered her then-boyfriend Johnny. Nell is now married to the Chief of Police, who had been the lead detective on the case. And the tape was found in his deceased partner's locker. Nell must figure out who she can trust - and what exactly she saw - to save her life and that of her & Johnny's daughter.  Kind of a faux post-Katrina New Orleans setting, with some interesting looks at hurricane aftermath, but not a huge part of the story. As one reviewer noted "entertaining but not much suspense".  Dupree, though innocent of this crime, is unlikeable. And Nell is just too good to be true. Not as good as his other books, but since it was a library book...

South of Shiloh by Chuck Logan - billed as a thriller, it's a bit more of a mystery. But not a whodunit - you know who did it. More of a "why exactly and will they catch him and what the hell are all these other people doing?" A Civil War re-enacter gets killed by a real bullet. But when his widow finds out that the bullet was meant for the man next to him, a local cop combining re-enacting with working security at the event, she gets her former lover, a danger junkie photographer/journalist, to investigate. Set in a small fictional town with a fictional Civil War battle - has a great sense of place and the difference in views between northerners and southerners, lots of Civil War & gun lore, and photography info, plus some local info on Buford Pusser. Probably a little much for one book :)  but I enjoyed it.

Dirty Money by Richard Stark - newest Parker book.  A follow-up to 2 books ago - Nobody Runs Forever, where Parker & company robbed an armored car and hid the money in an abandoned church. They only escaped by leaving almost all of the money and still one man was captured after spending some of the money he took - it was marked. Now that guy has escaped after killing a U.S. Marshal. Parker and the other guy involved, along with the bounty hunter who got involved, are curious to find out if the money is still there and safe. Parker's not quite as violent in this one - maybe since there are so many cops around, but the caper part is still crisp and concise. Now if Westlake would only write another Dortmunder...

all books: 100 books

2 romance, 1 fiction

again, all authors I've read before - and ::sigh:: again not their best.
Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews - delightful Southern chicklit with a foodie edge. Gina Foxton's health conscious cooking show gets canceled when the sponsor finds his wife in bed with Gina's producer/boyfriend. But the producer/now ex-boyfriend finds them a chance for a new show. But the Cooking Channel is also interested in another local area show with a male chef, called Vittles. Sparks fly between Gina and Tate - and the show sponsor dreams up a way to drum up interest in the new show - a Top Chef Survivor kind of reality show, where Gina and Tate will compete to find ingredients and cook for judges. But things really start cooking between Gina and Tate :)   Fun, flirty, and hungry making, but her other novels were better. Go to the library or wait on the paperback.

The Third Circle by Amanda Quick - newest book in the Arcane Society series - chronologically the second, fourth written. Leona Hewitt has the paranormal power to work with crystals, meets up with Thaddeus Ware, a formidable hypnotist, while both are trying to steal the same crystal from a antiquities collector. A murdered prostitute and a poisonous vapor complicate things, as does the attraction between them. Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz - frothy fun. This series is written under both names, Victorian times under Quick, current time frame under Krentz - so far, two each.  (A to Z)

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky -  On a rainy night, Deborah Monroe and her daughter Grace are driving home, when a man comes out of nowhere and the car hits him. The man turns out to be Grace's history teacher and later dies. Grace was driving, but Deborah sends her home to look after her younger brother, who's alone, and never mentions that fact to the police, who assume she was the driver.  It's a interesting premise, but most of the characters felt very flat and cliched - angsty teen, stern father, black sheep sister, etc. I did like the sister, but the best part was the relationship between Deborah and Tom, the victim's estranged brother. *That* felt more like the Delinsky stories I've read and enjoyed. Readable, but forgettable. (EMAH, BAM - the Book A Month theme was mothers, so I chose Mother's Day as the holiday for Every Month a Holiday)

all books: 100 books (currently at 85)