book review Archives – Janshea Bowens

Review-Archangel’s Viper

Hey there! It has been a moment, but I just wanted to drop in with a quick review of the latest Guild Hunter novel, Archangel’s Viper. Archangel’s Viper is the 10th installment in Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series. This is not the latest book, because I am behind in the series.

The Series

The Guild Hunter series is a paranormal world much like ours. Archangels are the pinnacle here. They are mostly beautiful and always deadly as they oversee other immortals and the humans. The Guild Hunters are those whose job it is to hunt down rogue vampires who break the contracts they have with these archangels.

The Story

Venom is one of the elite guard of the archangel of New York, Raphael. Seven of the best vampires and angels are a part of the guard. They have pledged allegiance to Raphael out of honor and a belief in his way of doing things. In this world filled with angels and vampires, Venom is unique. His eyes are like snakes and poison is in his fangs (he’s a vampire). Holly was once kidnapped by a crazed archangel who butchered her friends and left something of himself inside her. She has spent years learning how to live with her personal tragedy and how to control and use her new abilities. She is small and fast and her fangs carry poison too. Holly’s education is led by Venom and they have been like oil and water from the beginning.

Now Holly has come into her own and is also working for Raphael, when Venom returns from a few years abroad and stumbles right into a plot to kidnap her. During the search for the person behind the bounty on her head, Venom realizes that Holly is changing even more and something about it isn’t quite right. Holly is desperately trying to keep him from learning about the malevolent voice in her head. But they don’t yet realize the two are connected. The search brings them closer and they can no longer deny the chemistry they have. Since Venom is aloof and intimidating, while Holly is witty and combative, they have a hard time agreeing on anything. Even the chemistry may not be enough.

The Last Stand

The two find themselves having to breach another archangel’s home in order to save Holly. The cost may still be too high, for she and the voice inside can no longer co-exist. As the cost becomes clearer, Holly and Venom finally give in to the romance they feel. They are hoping the wait wasn’t too long. The epic battle for her life and the continued existence of their world comes to a dramatic conclusion sure to appease the romantics and the adrenaline junkies.

Where To Go

If this book sounds exciting, you can read more about Nalini Singh and her stories by clicking here. You can find the book here. Let me know if you have ever read her work, or if you decide to give her a try.

Books I’m Looking Forward to this January

So, I think we all know I love to read at this point. I have done numerous posts about some of the books and characters I enjoy. Now that it is a new year, I don’t want to talk about resolutions, so let’s talk about a few books I am looking forward to this January as I reset my goals and habits.

J.R. Ward – Blood Fury, releases January 9, 2018. This much-anticipated third installment in the Black Dagger Legacy series actually becomes available on the day of this writing. I stumbled upon the Black Dagger Brotherhood series years ago and was enthralled from the first. This series deals with a race of vampires just trying to live their lives steeped in their antiquated caste system while keeping their identity safe from humans. The Brotherhood is an elite group of warriors led by a king who doesn’t want the throne and tasked with keeping the worse of their society policed as the community is broiled in politics and plots that don’t care about remaining secret. Great world building, great action, and love too! The Legacy series is a spinoff/followup to the Brotherhood that deals with the training of the next generation of warriors. Blood Fury is the story of Peyton and Novo, an unlikely duo of warriors, both out to prove themselves.

Christine Feehan – Judgement Road, releases January 23, 2018. Christine Feehan is prolific and her worlds are full of vampires, shapeshifters, magic users, and those with extrasensory abilities. I have reviewed her writing here on the blog before. This book is the first in a new series called Torpedo Ink. It takes place close to Sea Haven, a town used in both her Drake Sisters and Sisters of the Heart series. There are motorcycles and trained killers, secrets, and love. I look forward to learning a whole new world of these men and women and how they are going to overcome circumstances the rest of us would run from.

Susan Mallery – Sisters Like Us, releases January 23, 2018. Susan Mallery writes great contemporary romances with the sort of real world feeling that makes you feel it could be you and your friends in similar situations. This new book revolves around sisters who appear to be opposites but are grappling with similar problems involving kids and their mother. I have a sister and we often feel dissimilar even though we love each other fiercely, but we have certainly felt even closer with adding kids to the mix and with the hi-jinx of our aging parents. I feel this story is one I will relate to in a fun way.

J.D. Robb – Dark In Death, releases January 30, 2018. J.D. Robb is the pseudonym of Nora Roberts and the vastly different books she rights under the two names has always fascinated me. Robb writes a close futuristic crime thrillers featuring the bitingly literal Eve Dallas and the people who inhabit her life as a police lieutenant in New York. These circle includes her mysterious husband Roarke, a thief turned billionaire business guru. This marks the 46th book in the series and most of the joy, for me, comes from Eve’s confusion over everyday sayings and items along with her keen mind for crime and seeing her dragged kicking and screaming into friendships. In this installment Eve is trying to find a killer employing scenes from an author’s stories. It sounds similar, but I am sure it will be fun anyway!

Ronen Bergman – Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, releases January 30, 2018. I have never read a Ronen Bergman book, but the title and premise of this one caught my attention. I love the fictional Israeli Mossad agent, Gabriel Allon, written by Daniel Silva. I have reviewed him on the blog, here. So, this real account of how Israel’s Mossad agents use something I have only read about in fiction sounded like my kind of book. I look forward to reading it.

An Intro to Bosch World

I am late to the party. I don’t mind being late to new, to me, characters. I love discovering people I want to read about, learn about, and spend time with. Because when you are reading a book series, it is like watching a television or movie series. In visual arts, you are waiting for next week, or maybe next year to see what happens next. In books, we have longer, sometimes just months but often a year or more waiting to know what happens to our new friend. Even if the story is wrapped up in the previous book, the life of that person doesn’t end, like yours doesn’t, what comes next and will it be as exciting as the last thing that happened? I get to fly through some of that unknown when I come to a character late in the series. The biggest meaning I am not impatiently waiting to know what happens in the character arc next. The downside, for me, is that I am a pretty fast reader, especially when I am excited about new books, so I sometimes catch-up before the next in the series is ready. Then I am like everyone else, stalking author websites and social media in hopes of learning the exact second the next book becomes available! So, I am late to the Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch party, but there are quite a few, so I should be okay with filling my Bosch world cup without pause for a long while.

Michael Connelly came to my knowledge with The Lincoln Lawyer, which I enjoyed. I didn’t spend a lot of time learning about the author, though, else I would have found Bosch World much sooner. So, when I was perusing my library offerings for an interesting read, I came across a Michael Connelly book that I hadn’t read nor was it involving Mickey Haller. Mr. Haller is the main character in The Lincoln Lawyer. The premise was interesting and he had written something I like before, so let’s give it a try. The Black Echo, the book that introduces us to Bosch World, was a gripping read. I am not gripped by a book and its characters all that often. I love a lot of books and characters but I am not always losing sleep to see what happens next! I was hooked and am spending way too much time reading each book. I am currently on book three, The Concrete Blond. Mr. Connelly is on book twenty, so I hope I don’t get caught up too soon. Though, as I have found after book two, Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch have overlapping lives and I can’t wait to reread the Haller books as they coincide with the Bosch books. It seems to be a vast and interlocking world and those are some of the best kind.

So, Hieronymus Bosch is a man intimately acquainted with violence and being alone. His mother names him after a Dutch painter and he doesn’t know his father. His mother is murdered when he is eleven and he spends the rest of his growing years being shuttled between foster homes and the state-run youth hall. He joins the army and becomes a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War. When he leaves, he joins the Los Angeles Police Department and works himself into a prestigious detective position. But, when we meet him in The Black Echo, he has been demoted and disgraced which sets up the characterization of Harry as a lone shark who is out for the truth, no matter the cost. It is costing him plenty and he seems to be accepting of this truth. Each book, so far, is written on a timeline closely following the previous one. This series writing is really fun because no matter the time between publishing, it feels as if you have missed nothing of the character’s life. You feel intimately connected to their lives and invested in what happens next. I would think it might be good for the writer too, it is like writing how we live, which can lead to an abundance of information and less room to make errors about the people we have written about. Bosch has a highly developed sense of right and wrong, he wants the answer, because the right answer is more important than the political line of the police force. He finds the politics and familial attitude of the department a bit stifling, beneath him, and really I think he has no real idea how to be in a family. He doesn’t have a lot of history of familial bonds, no way to transfer that kind of devotion to a job he sees as very black and white. Now, this in no way means he won’t bend the rules to get to the truth, but he seems to make sure that when he does, they won’t impede on prosecuting the culprit in the end. So, his separation inside the department is its own character because everyone else is in the departmental family, they don’t have any problem with the politics, they go along to get along. Harry being apart is an affront to some and no problem to others. How this impacts each book looms large in the first two books, I look forward to figuring out if it continues to play a part.

These crime thrillers are just the thing for a good story. The twists have been good, the back story is revealed a bit at a time, steadily giving us insight into Harry and how he lives his life and performs his job, which he will tell you is his mission not a job. If you enjoy crime thrillers, or if you are looking for something new to try, give Hieronymus Bosch a go, then let me know if he excites you too… or not!

Have You Met Cormoran Strike?

A good friend and fellow bibliophile recently introduced me to the character Cormoran Strike. I was a bit leery because I had heard, as most everyone, that Robert Galbraith author of the The Cuckoo’s Calling, was really J. K. Rowling! I loved Harry Potter along with most of the world and love sharing them with my children now that they are of an age to understand and not be too frightened by the deepening seriousness of the events portrayed. Yet, I had picked up Ms. Rowlings first adult fiction book, The Casual Vacancy and found it ponderous and frankly I haven’t finished it yet! I still keep a note about where I stopped in some weird notion that I will go back to it one day and find it compelling in a way I didn’t the first time. Writing this, I certainly feel like it sounds as if I am never actually going back. But let me tell you readers a secret, I am often compelled to finish what has been left undone and especially after meeting Cormoran Strike, I see myself re-tackling The Casual Vacancy as I impatiently wait on the fourth book of the series.

Anyway, back to what you came for, Cormoran Strike! The Cuckoo’s Calling was the first book to introduce a large, slightly unkempt former Special Investigator for the British military. He storms onto the page at the beginning of the end to a nasty long term relationship and runs right into his new temporary secretary, Robin Ellacott. We are then taking on a ride that gives out slivers of background that has depth for both Cormoran and Robin. Cormoran has been in injured while serving in Afghanistan and as a result his right leg is amputated below the knee. Robin has just become engaged to her long time boyfriend, yet has some mysterious past situation that caused her to drop out of university and second guess her relationship. Robin is secretly thrilled to be working for a private detective while interviewing for permanent jobs, and Cormoran is taken aback that the temp agency had sent another secretary for he had no funds to pay another one. You see, Cormoran has left his beloved, anonymous military career behind and opened his own private detective agency, and frankly things aren’t going so well. Then he is strangely asked to investigate a high profile suicide by the victim’s brother and the rest as they say is golden literary history. The ending will leave you gasping and rushing out to pick up the next installment, The Silkworm.

As Cormoran and Robin are drawn into the often eccentric world of authors and publishers in The Silkworm, I was blown away by the novels within the novel and the climatic unveiling of how this novel in a novel is the key to the killer! I know that sounds weird and confusing but trust me, it was masterful and astonishing to me, as the ‘fake’ novel in the Cormoran Strike investigation is highly detailed, meticulously thought out and researched because it directly correlated to the murderer. My friend, mentioned above, just listened to me gush, or rather read my gushing through my Goodreads review, and assured me that the third installment was even better.

Which lands us at the latest published Cormoran Strike novel, Career of Evil. In it Robin and Cormoran have become friends and partners, while she continues to argue about her job with her fiancé and planning a wedding, they both stalk around the apparent attraction between the two of them. The more they work together in fraught situations, the closer their friendship, respect, and dependency becomes. We can all see the undercurrents of attraction in their thoughts on the page. Cormoran has recognized from the beginning that coming off a tumultuous long term relationship and being around an attractive, smart, and ambitious Robin is not necessarily a good or smart thing to do. The engagement ring on Robin’s hand is like his own private safety net. For Robin, her first meeting with Cormoran certainly didn’t paint him in an attractive light. He is tall, broad, unkempt and apparently sleeping in his office! Yet, as they work to solve cases and build the business, she can see how intelligent and determined he is. He also helps validate her dream of being an investigator. The interplay between them is realistic and entertaining. As they learn more about each other, the more attractive they are too. Who knew the temp secretary hoarded a long denied dream of being an investigator and had the instincts to do well at helping Cormoran with more than the filing and bills? Who knew Cormoran could be pleasant, funny, and understanding since he looked like a roughened tank crashing through life when they first met? The Career Evil brings crime to the door of Cormoran and Robin’s office and directly involves Robin in what appears to be a grudge against Cormoran. His past has netted him enemies and three stand out to him as potential perpetrators he believes the Police should investigate. These suggestions from Strike aren’t taken as well as he would like, he isn’t exactly the police detectives’ favorite person after solving two high profile cases they had originally mishandled. This of course leads him to investigate things himself, along with Robin. Both are going through upheavals in their personal lives, this new case has brought upheaval to their professional lives as well and forces them both to assess the important things a little more closely. The story takes many frightening twists with the main characters front and center in the crime, instead of being sidelined viewers trying to prove a point. Pasts are uncovered, lives are complicated, and Ms. Rowling formulated a criminal answer that had me screaming out loud and hitting my forehead in surprise. But it was the good kind of surprise, because I had been grappling with figuring out who had committed the crime I couldn’t see the tree for the forest (yes, I know that bit is backwards, but read the book and you will get it), much as the characters in the book too. The reveal was a cleverly delivered delight to this reader. Now that I have met Cormoran Strike, I don’t ever want to let him go!

Good news for me and others who love the series, BBC One will be producing a television series entitled Strike about the fascinating world of Cormoran Strike. I read it has also been picked up by HBO for American and Canadian distribution. So, the wait begins, both for the next Cormoran Strike novel and the televised realization of the characters I have come to love.

If this intrigued you into checking them out for yourselves, click on the titles which will take you to Amazon for purchase. If you use them, I will be compensated via the click.

Happy Reading and hopefully short waiting for book four everyone. Cormoran Strike is a winner on my shelf!

Classic Book Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

I enjoy going back periodically and reading books I read long ago or are considered classics of literature. Now, to be honest, I can’t remember if I ever actually read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey before. I do remember seeing the movie adaptation with my grandmother. Spending time with my grandmother watching old movies and television shows is one of the more loved memories I have of her. I have a love of movie musicals, films from the 1930s through the 1950s, and cheesy television Westerns like The Rifleman and Big Valley; all because there was one television and she controlled what we watched and cartoons and kid specific programming only came on Saturday mornings. I know for some reading this, the concept is absolutely unbelievable. There are just so many more options for occupying our kids (for good or bad). So, when I needed a contemporary reading break, this title caught my eye.

The blurb on book read: “In this classic of the 1960s, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, back by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax.”

Now, you know as much as I remembered when I picked it up. It was in many ways a shockingly realistic picture of 1960s mental health in America. This to say, there are horrible medical practises in place such as shock therapy and lobotomies which today no one would think to be a reasonable or acceptable standard of care for the mentally ill. It also includes vernacular of the day which is demeaning to black people. If these ideas are offensive, I certainly suggest not reading the book. But I caution those who dislike reading or studying historically accurate snapshots of the past, those snapshots help us see where we were wrong and how we can hopefully improve. Many also speak to the dichotomy of the big bad nurse who is there to thwart all happiness in the men she is supposed to care for and the boisterous ideal of a “real man” who doesn’t go quietly along with her domination. He blows in and looks around and seems to decide that all these shrugging, quiet men are in need of toughening up to the status quo. But to me, the real gem in this book is the narrator, he is a mixed race man of great stature who we learn early on has been here a long time and is faking at being deaf and voiceless (dumb in the book). The Chief as he is called, is part Native American (the book is not so correct in its wording) and part white and tall, but no one pays him much attention and as such he sees all. His thoughts on the rules and rulers of the medical ward are fantastical such as you might expect from the mentally ill, but they are superb examples of how our actions to assimilate and control can be viewed as a mindless machine, much in the vein of ‘Big Brother’.

The writing is full of imagery and flows in a very conversational tone. You feel like you are sitting in on a secret being whispered and you feel a little honored to be in on it all. There are many characters peppered in the story and you will find yourself horrified, saddened, angry and probably exceedingly invested in what happens to each. This novel gives it all to you and you feel like you are there amidst the white walls and green patient uniforms.

Go checkout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and be transported as I was. I believe you will be glad you did or you just might be a little upset, that is good too. The writing will stay with you long after the last word is read.

Book Review – The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey

This was a 500+ page turner that took me a while. I took so long to finish because it was so full of knowledge that sometimes my brain just wasn’t ready. I needed short, sweet, and fun to make it through the day. While The Blackbirds is long, lush, complicated, and both fun and not so much simultaneously. I had to take my time reading the tale of 4 girlfriends living in Los Angeles who happen to be Black and African. They are in their twenties now, but their lives have been intertwined and filled with heartache, despair, turmoil, misunderstandings and the simple human longing for love and understanding. As we go through each of the ladies’ present lives on the occasion of their birthdays, we learn their struggle, their abiding love and support for one another above all and finally their acceptance with themselves.

Kwanzaa, Indigo, Destiny, and Ericka are shaped by bad choices, wrongs perpetuated against them, health issues, familial and cultural ties that don’t always fit, and an abiding friendship that keeps them grounded while allowing them to experiment and figure things out for themselves. This book of life felt so true to me, I felt that the women here could be any group of friends but even more surprisingly me and my friends. The writing about them is lush and full of sentiment that makes you feel for them and root for them. They remind you of your own mistakes and how blessed you are to have been able to move past them. It is a small slice of life that feels immediate and relevant, especially to black women who don’t often see themselves depicted in literature in a way they can relate too.

Towards the end Mr. Dickey gives us a surprising twist that seems to be contradictory, but helps tie the end of the story back together, as you have been separated in each woman’s immediate story. I won’t give out the end, but will say I felt it was brave and left a large feeling of truth in me. I felt I had the answer to the final page and I liked it that way, I liked thinking what I would of the continuing story of Kwanzaa, Indigo, Destiny, and Ericka. I don’t usually like stories that compel you to come to your own conclusion of what the author might mean, but this time, I was right with Mr. Dickey to the end and was pleasantly surprised to be so satisfied at the conclusion.

I will lastly say that these women have appeared at earlier times in their lives in earlier books by Mr. Dickey, as he says in his remarks at the end. I have read other books but don’t really remember these characters and admit it didn’t change my involvement in their current story and I don’t feel I missed anything by not having really ‘met’ them before. I say, if you hunger for a deep read that will speak to you about life and choice and coming back from the brink, pick up The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey, I don’t think you will be disappointed. Go here for your own copy!

Book Review: The Darkest Torment by Gena Showalter

What better way to start a new year than with a review of a scrumptious book? I can’t think of one, so let’s go!

I recently finished the long awaited title The Darkest Torment by Gena Showalter. It is number 16 in the Lords of the Underworld series. I have read each book, I have genuinely enjoyed each of them too, which is why I still reading 16 books in. The Darkest Torment tells the story of Baden, recently returned to life, sort of, and a dog trainer caught in the wrong place at what turns out to be the right time. Baden has recently been returned to life to rejoin his friends who comprise the Lords and of course such a thing comes with a lot of strings. Not only does every story build upon the previous ones, but they each stand alone as a complete story and can be enjoyed if you stumbled over, say number 10 first. You may discover them out of order, but I am sure your curiosity will get the better of you and force to you go back and get each person’s complete story for yourself. Ms. Showalter’s world is richly imagined and vivid with details. One of my favorite visuals this time around was the fact that Lucifer’s palace was built of blood and bones and surrounded by a moat of acid and tears of the damned! Just reading that made me want to turn around and run. Baden is described by referencing Jamie Fraser of Outlander book and now show, fame. It is a series many of her readers will be familiar with and brings the contemporary believably into her fantasy world. As Baden and Katarina, the dog trainer, collide we have some typical butting of heads with one or both lying about themselves and their situations. I always think, “Can’t anyone tell the truth so we can have a little bit of a smoother ride?” But let’s face it, most of us love the conflict and enjoy screaming at our books when the characters make ridiculous choices (I certainly do). I didn’t like Katarina a lot at the beginning because I was so caught up in what I saw has her needless tales, but it didn’t last and you will have to read it to see if you feel the same, but I came to enjoy her story more as it unfolded and my first impression was definitely changed.

One of the other things that often go into serial books is secondary stories as set up to forthcoming books. When they are done well, as Ms. Showalter does here, they are integral to the current story and whet your appetite for the other character’s book as well. There are two major secondary stories in this installment, that of Cameo (a female Lord, so a Lady of the Underworld?) and of William the Ever Randy (great name, right?). I wanted both these characters to have their day in the spotlight right now based on the continuation of their private situations that came to a bit of a head in this book. I don’t know which one will be next, but I can’t wait!

Back to the main story, as Baden and Katarina are forced into a longer and longer involvement, they start learning truths not clearly evident in the beginning and feeling proprietary towards each other. It is played out masterfully with a return of hellhounds, a decisive independent stance by Katarina in a world populated by demons and immortals, and an explosive twisty ending that shows smart character development. The Lords are also collectively battling to save their lives as they each fall in love, every story expounds on this and shows a maturing of the characters and their thoughts from a simple black/white and good/bad outlook, to one that is nuanced and shaped by caring for others and understanding that we all want to live.

I have long enjoyed Ms. Showalter’s writing and Lords of the Underworld was the first of her books I enjoyed, but she writes seemingly as voraciously as I read and has other series you may enjoy including contemporary romance with no fantasy worlds involved! I hope you get a chance to read The Darkest Torment, it was a delicious treat filled with misunderstood people trying their best, like you and me.

Book Review: The English Spy by Daniel Silva

Yes, this too is a title in an ongoing series. I find that I really enjoy book series, I get to live in the world of new friends and foes for a long time and I like that. Each book takes me deeper into their lives, you feel invested as if these characters are people you walk through life with. It is also why I love books in general, new worlds, different experiences, learning new facts, expanding my view, and giving me insight I am able to ponder and accept or discard at will.

So, The English Spy is number 15 in the international thriller series starring Gabriel Allon. Allon is a gifted art restorer, artist, and former secret operative for Israeli intelligence. His past is rich in historic events that have brought joy and misery,with lots of conflict of both the physical and mental kind. When I pick up a Gabriel Allon novel, I know I will get a fast moving story filled with complex characters that are drawn more fully with each story. I will learn about different countries and their complicated political and geographical histories and how these histories play into the very real human rights and political disarray of these places in present day. I have my atlas at the ready to visualize the places Allon visits and works in. I want to walk the streets Mr. Silva describes in rich detail, I look up the priceless art Allon works on and with and long to see it in its present place of rest.

In The English Spy, Allon is once again drawn reluctantly into the politics of the world because the people still playing games with countries like a living, decades long game of chess have often crossed the path of Allon, his country, or someone he loves. The incident that sparks his return to espionage this time is an account of a former English princess murdered in dramatic fashion. This princess is drawn in similar lines of the famous real former princess of the British empire and this gives the book an earnest and frightening reality within the first pages that draw the reader in. When I read this sequence of events, I thought I knew where Mr. Silva was going and while I didn’t know how he was going to get there, I was sure I knew where ‘there’ was. I was so wrong. This book has more twists and turns, which when I think about it, are classic tools in Mr. Silva’s writing of Gabriel Allon. The magic is that even 15 books in, I forget that explosive plot twists are common and I don’t even see it coming. I am shocked, thrilled, and flabbergasted when it happens in The English Spy, just as I was when it first happened in The Kill Artist (the first Gabriel Allon thriller)! Somehow, this story also takes us on a very cool history lesson of Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland along with the various players from a number of countries that were heavily invested in the outcome of this civil war. The very harsh reality of citizen against citizen in many parts of the world comes alive here and we get to make our own decisions about the consequences of interference and how decisions in these situations is hardly ever a clear cut case of right versus wrong. I often find myself researching the real events fictionalized by Mr. Silva to the joy of my inner student and I think writing that opens up inquisitiveness in us is fantastic. Mr. Silva also sprinkles numerous ideas that personalize the story, you can see yourself or your community in a similar situation, yet these ideas never take away from the pressing circumstances of the narrative. My favorite of this book was found on page 344. It says, “Later the neighborhood would go to great lengths to save the tree, but to no avail.” I could see the heart in that sentence, the way bad things happen and no matter how we try to shore ourselves up, sometimes it just isn’t possible. A sentence about a tree, people, but really about so much more.

Unfortunately, this is not a series in which I suggest you start at book 15. Hopefully this review makes you want to start at book 1. Each book in the series reveals more of Allon’s history, motivation, and personality. They are completely interlocking, where characters continually show up and evolve. Many key players in this adventure were introduced earlier and the actions taken in The English Spy are directly linked to previous decisions taken by the characters in earlier books. This iteration is dependent on a lot of history told in previous books, so many of the why may get lost without context or even knowing the whole story. The English Spy continues the exciting life story of Gabriel Allon with lots of interlocking revelations that are exciting news for those of us following Allon’s life in these perilous times. If you enjoy a great thriller, with enough realism to make you say, “Hmm?”, you will love The English Spy. If this is the first time you have ever heard of Gabriel Allon, do yourself an awesome favor and start at the beginning. Enjoy!

Book Review: Dark Promises by Christine Feehan

I have loved the Carpathian novels, The Dark Series by Christine Feehan for a while now, and I hadn’t read any in a moment and when I saw Dark Promises on my library shelf, I got myself caught up with the series in order to read this. I was only one novella and one novel behind and I quickly read those. I completed Dark Promises in one day, this is a bit unusual as I don’t normally have a day to commit to nothing much more than reading and laying around, so this was a treat. Read on to see how I thoroughly enjoyed it!

In having read the series up to this book, I went into it prepared for the normal story arc as presented in the realm of the unique circumstances of the main characters in this book, but was totally rocked off my chair (out of my bed) of normal Carpathian storyline in Chapter 1, page 24 (hardcover edition)! This installment in the world of the Carpathians is NOT the same and already I am so shocked by what is happening I had to put the book down and process my feelings about it.

Now, to be honest, these books are not for anyone triggered or with a general dislike of themes where the woman is dominated both mentally and physically by the man. I don’t find the domination to be overtly sexual in the way of BDSM (as recently popularized in fiction writing), but in the Carpathian world, the males have strong personalities and often come from a time centuries earlier when the main objective was keep your woman safe and cherish her at home. Often a woman is brought into the Carpathian world (they are not human) without her full knowledge of it and this heavy handedness, as some may call it, is usually tempered by seeing that the woman has a feeling this is the right man and the right thing to do, but doesn’t mindfully know it is. She wants this new reality but will probably have a very difficult time admitting it. In this installment, this theme is very prevalent. In some past installments, the woman is less dominated, often has a dominating personality herself which then has to be understood by a male working on a centuries old dynamic of his word being law. That is not the case in Dark Promises. If you can get past that, keep reading.

In Dark Promises, someone at odds with herself all her life has been forced into a new life. Now she is being ripped from her perfect fantasy life and trying to claw her way out of it into reality. This reality also has the benefit of showing her what strengths she has always had. The essential theme in Carpathian novels is the immutable bond between life mates, and one of the things I love most about Ms. Feehan’s world is that the players involved always find out that the bond isn’t the real glue in the relationship, it is the trust and care built, even in a short time, that makes you root for the couple. It makes you scream in frustration and weep in joy as they stumble through learning trust and care in a strange, exciting, often terrifying new world. Also, the couples often feel the lifemate bond has it wrong due to the vast gulf of differences and opposite personalities, but often this bond cements the idea that a loved one’s opposite demeanor helps expand our perceptions and makes us stronger. This story actually covers two couples and moves the story of The Dark Series along well. The two couples’ lives are intertwined and while one couple’s story is prominent and the other secondary, both are told well and fit in the realm of one book. This installment in the storyline depends heavily on the book immediately previous, Dark Ghost, but if this is the first Carpathian novel you have picked up, it won’t be hard to follow. But, I will warn you, if you read it and love it, you will likely want to go back and start at the beginning to see all the great lives changed in the world of the Carpathians.

Dark Promises gave me a jolt out of my preconceived notion of how things and people worked with the Carpathians, and that was great. Especially since I didn’t know my notions needed a jolt. Yet, this didn’t feel forced or contrived, it was plausible in the world Ms. Feehan has built. While it moved the overall storyline and ended with my own searing need for the next book in the series, it was still a lovely, self-contained story of people being grown outside of the box they have forced themselves into by an otherworldly and all encompassing love. And that, my friends, was superb.