Thursday, July 14, 2011

Book Review: Grave Dance


Grave Dance: An Alex Craft NovelProduct Description
After a month of down time, Grave Witch Alex Craft is ready to get back to solving murders by raising the dead. With her love life in turmoil, Alex is eager for the distractions of work. But when her new case forces her to overuse her magic, it might be the last mystery the Grave Witch ever gets to solve...




Review:   I’ve been waiting for this book for many months now and was not disappointed.  Alex is back in all her grave witchy glory.  So is Falin and Death as well as her  best friends.  The premise of the series is very interesting and the ending leaves the author with MANY directions she could go. 
 
In this  installment in the Alex Craft series, several left feet are found, that’s all, no bodies and no apparent means of severing.  All the alphabet soup law agencies try to stake out their territory on the case but the Fae claim ultimate jurisdiction.  Which leads to lots more problems as Alex recently discovered she was part fae.  As she investigates the left feet and no body problem, she starts encountering other more serious problems.  This is no light-hearted romp.  It’s an easy read, but not a comedy.  If you read Grave Witch, you know this series is a great evening read (all the better to keep you up all night, my pretties).  It has some nice twists and turns and I am already searching the web to see if the author has the next one in the series ready for publishing.  Recommend fully.
 
Sensuality: kissing, no sex.  I love that the heroine made a decision to not have sex with a character and sticks to it. 
Rating: 4 stars

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Book Review: Towers of Midnight


Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time, Book Thirteen)Product Description
The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight.

The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age.
Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel’aran’rhiod and find a way--at long last--to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever.

Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways--the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn--have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.
This penultimate novel of Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series--the second of three based on materials he left behind when he died in 2007--brings dramatic and compelling developments to many threads in the Pattern. The end draws near.
Dovie’andi se tovya sagain. It’s time to toss the dice.

Review:
I debated waiting to read this until the final one was out but I couldn’t stand the suspense of not knowing what happened until then.  I should have waited because now the suspense is REALLY killing me!  Yes, many questions were answered but just as many were asked!   I started reading the Wheel of Time books about five years ago when several friends recommended them and like many millions of readers, now eagerly await the Last Battle.    It is just about to begin and everything in Towers of Midnight points the reader to it. 
 
Thankfully we don’t meet too many more people in this book as the cast of characters is truly massive, but there are a few characters named I didn’t remember.  Don’t worry, they don’t take up too much time away from Rand and company.  I started to give a synopsis of what each of the main characters were trying to accomplish, but I really feel that would be too spoiler-ish.  I will say however, that there are many truly breathtaking scenes, jaw-dropping scenes, laughing, crying, horrifying scenes and much wondering how the heck things are going to work out, who’s going to live and who will not. 
 
Rand: the first time Rand appeared in Towers of Midnight gave me shivers.  He truly has grown into the man he needs to be to complete whatever task is needed of him.
 
Mat: felt much more like Mat of the previous books than he did in the last book.  I think Sanderson’s finally gotten  his groove with him.
 
Perrin: Perrin really shines in this book.  He never was one of my favorite characters, I would simply read his stuff to get to the rest of the crew, and I really didn’t care for Faile at all but they really grew on me this time around, having worked out many of the things that made me not care for them so much.

So many other major characters and their stories are intertwined I dare not say much more.  Suffice it to say, Towers of Midnight is fantastic and I can't wait for the final one.  I highly recommend this book but if you haven't started this series, don't even think about reading this book.  You will be completely lost.  Do however start with The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) and then read the rest of the books in order in the Wheel of Time series. I do hope Sanderson includes a brief history of the main characters and their families after the Last Battle.  As readers who have invested countless hours in reading 10,000 + pages in this epic fantasy series, we are kind of invested in the characters.  I personally want to know how things turn out for the kids and grandkids.
 
Sensuality: references to kissing, no sex
Rating: 5 stars