Books and a heat wave

What you can do when you have hurt your knee and it is hot outside?
Try to read as more as you can obviously.
Best of this week reads were:
“Twice Bitten” the third book of “A Chicagoland Vampires” series by Chloe Neill. Ethan and Merit are providing security for a shifter summit and get involve in interracial politics. Their hope of an alliance with shifters in case of war with humans is very slim as someone is trying to kill the top dog (wolf!) and blame it on vampires. Merit makes some bad decisions but one good thing comes out of it: She and Mal are friends again. This book is nonstop action and a little heartache.

“Kitty Goes to War” (Kitty Norville, Book 8) by Carrie Vaughn. Eight books into the series and this series still goes strong. The plot and storytelling is mesmerizing and the old characters are changing and developing naturally, well as natural as you can expect a bunch of supernaturals can change!
Kitty gets a call from a military base concerning some werewolf soldiers. There is also the small matter of Speedy Mart owner and weird rumors of strange rituals. With the help of Cormac and their trusty pack of wolves Kitty and Ben are up to their neck in snow and trouble.

“Sherlock Holmes: The American Years” edited by Michael Kurland is a collection of ten stories by different authors and in different styles, all wonderful! Mark Twain and R.L. Stevenson are narrators of two of the stories. Sherlock’s sister tells another one.
This Sherlock is more emotional than Sir Conan Doyle’s, of course he is younger. He even has a little crush on a beautiful actress.
Intrigued? You better be! This collection is so good, you want to read it more than once and then go back read all the original Sherlock Holmes stories.

And how can I forget? “Daring a Duke” the fifth book of The Courtesan Series by Claudia Dain was just what the doctor ordered for a hot summer afternoon.
The wonderful thing about this book is that the whole story happens in a day. It’s a nice quirk, isn’t it?
Jane Elliot (an American) has come to England with her two brothers to attend the wedding of her cousin the heir of Hyde dukedom. Thrice widowed Duke Edenhum takes one look at her and wants to marry her. So he enlists the help of Countess Daleby, the notorious Sophia. Sophia is also an old friend of Jane’s mother, so she has to help Jane (when she asks for help) not marrying anyone. A lot of gossip and subplots and a hilarious cast of characters later, everyone is deliciously satisfied. In the course of this story we learn a little more about the mysteries of Sophia’s past.
And if you are like me, the more you learn about her, the more you love the series and the more impatiently you will wait for the next book.

Now is the turn for the not-so-hot books of the week. You might think having a heat wave and temp. topping 90 degree, I would welcome some wet-blankets but then you haven’t read these ones:
“You’re So Vein” (The Others, Book 7) by Christine Warren. So I started midseries again, but I assure you this book was the first and last one I’m reading from this author.
So very cheesy! Apparently all the supernaturals in America are one big happy family and all the top dogs are married to a group of girlfriends. This one I read was the story of Ava Markham, a wisemouth (!) anti-“Other” bossy member of that group which is attacked by a vampire and is turned accidentally. Vladimir (Dima) something-or-the-other is saving her afterlife and becomes her mentor and (yes, oh so unexpectedly!) love of her (after)life!
Kill me now!

“Cum Laude” by Cecily Von Ziegesar wasn’t in the league with “gossip Girl” series. This is a lame story about how a group of freshmen adopt to a small college life in a campus in beautiful Main.

“Early to Death, Early to Rise” by Kim Harrison. Now I love Ms. Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, but this Madison Avery series is not working out in my humble opinion. Too weird if you ask me, too simplified, too rushed… Wish Ms. Harrison hasn’t started it. I wonder who told her YA books shouldn’t have a plot?!

“Tranquilista” by Kimberly Wilson is a life style book about being a trendy and hip yogi and all around cool girl. My impression was that Ms. Wilson has serious delusions of grandeur, thinking herself a great author and life couch.
The book is a mismatch of trendy lingo with French and British expressions randomly thrown in. It reads like rambling of a cheerleader turned yoga enthusiast who is high on something, too much sugar is my guess. Too fluffy, too sugary, too cheesy! Ugh!
If there were a couple of useful tips in the book, all those fluffiness did a good job of obscuring them.
Why do I read this trash?!