"Stealing Fire"

You all know how much I loved “Black ships” and “Hand of Iris” by Jo Graham. “Stealing Fire” is Ms. Graham’s latest and I cannot stop gushing about it.

In its second incarnation the same soul who was once the Seer of the-city-which-will-be-Rome now comes back as Lydias of Milthos, a companion in Alexander’s army. One who against all the odds after Alexander’s death allays himself with Ptolemy and goes to Egypt to fulfill Alexander’s wish to be buried in Egypt.

What follows is the story of how the city of Alexandria was built and how Ptolemaic dynasty became to rule the Egypt.

In an enchanting story we visit the courts of ancient civilizations and ride with armies into battles.

Elizabeth Adler’s latest three

“One of Those Malibu nights”, “There’s something about St. Tropez” and “It All Began in Mont Carlo”, this little trio is a miniseries considering the main characters are the same and many of the side characters keep popping in and out!

Mac Reilly a Hollywood PI with his own show and his girlfriend and partner in adventure Sunny Alvarez originally from Malibu California, are in Rome when we first meet them. Work cases takes them back to LA and Malibu when they get tangled in the case of a famous actress divorcing her millionaire husband. Murder and fraud, missing person cases and identity crisis soon follows.

In the second book, Sunny and Mac take a much needed vacation to St. Tropez where they find out they have been victims of a rental scam and their villa had been rented to five other party as well. Fraud, art theft, murder and cases of mistaken identity, ghost hunting and finding your true self are discussed and progress.

The third book is an excuse to go around Mon Carlo, Prague and Mumbai! The story is tired by now. Sunny and Mac fight because Sunny wants to get married and Mac has postponed their wedding three times. So she runs away to Mont Carlo and gets tangled in international jewelry theft and blackmail and kidnapping and murder. Annnd yes, Mac has to go and rescue her!

First let me tell you how much I like Ms. Adler’s simple and detailed narrative. You can take a walk with her along the beach or go strolling in French country side or discover a little village somewhere.

But her plots lack seriousness and depth, the bad guys in her stories are always drowned or die in exploding cars or crash into things or go down the side of mountain roads all of their own doing! Very Hollywood action movie happy endings!

In this little series, the third book was a stretch. No real plot in which Sunny behaved very childish and illogical, contrary to her character in previous books.

I wish Ms. Adler hadn’t seen fit to publish this last one. It completely ruined the other two books for me!

“Play of Passion”

“Play of Passion” by Nalini Singh is the ninth book of Psy-Changeling series. Drew is the Tracker and executer of SnowDancer wolf pack. Indigo is an alpha female and the first Lieutenant of the pack, way higher up in hierarchy than him. But Drew has charm aplenty and never has let his prey go.

Aside from the love story and its predicted outcome, Psy council is divided and Nikita Dunkan and Anthony join forces to support their people against those who want to take their individuality away.

The fate of all three races is at stake. There is trouble brewing and Far-seers are predicting seas of fire and blood.

“Mad about a Duke”

This is latest installment of Elizabeth Boyle’s Bachelor Chronicles. “Mad about a Duke” tells the story of Elinor sterling the second Lady Stanton. Remember when Felicity gave her infamous Bachelor Chronicles to three widowed Lady Stantons and ordering them to find husbands because she and her husband couldn’t put up with the ladies shenanigans any longer?

Well, Eleanor took that ultimatum seriously; part because she didn’t want to be under Felicity’s thumb any longer but more because she needed some strong protector for herself and her younger sister. That is why she reads through that little book and makes a list of available dukes of the realm. But she also has learned from her first marriage and doesn’t want any nasty surprise after the wedding. Therefore she hires a solicitor to check all her candidates for her. What she doesn’t know is that her Mr. St. Maur in addition to being a nice gentleman is Mad Jack Termont’s brother, James Termont the ninth duke of Parkerton.

I should say a nice case of mistaken identity and an enjoyable story except the fact that Ms. Boyle has already used this plot a couple of times before!

“Side Jobs” and “A Touch of Dead”

Not up-dating this weblog doesn’t mean not reading, although I’ve been reading very little these past couple of months. I enjoyed two anthologies by my favorite authors.

“Side Jobs” by Jim Butcher covers some smaller adventures of Harry Dresden, small but not boring! The last story in the book happens after the “Changes” with Harry’s friends doing their best to keep the city safe from supernatural threats. I had read some of the stories in other anthologies but reading them in chronicle order was offering a new perspective. Anyhow I cannot wait for the “Ghost Stories” to hit the market.

“A Touch of Dead” by Charlaine Harris is a collection of five short stories on some misfortune and adventures Sookie shares with her vampire, werewolf and fairy friends. Again most of (I guess all of) these stories were published in other anthologies, so nothing new. But having all of them in one volume and adding it to my Sookie books was necessary, so thank you Ms. Harris!