klwilliams

Raluca renounced her birthright as a princess in a dramatic fashion, by leaping off a balcony and shapeshifting into her dragon form, to fly off (with her dragon hoard of jewels) to a new life where she gets to call the shots. But she still has the skills, and standards, drilled into her since childhood. She loves fine clothes, fine food, and gracious manners.

Nick renounced his old gang and his life of crime while at the same time renouncing ties to his wolf pack, only to recognize that Protection, Inc., a bodyguard business made up entirely of shapeshifters and their mates, is his new pack. He still carries his rough habits form his old life: the leather jacket, the tattoos, the f-bombs.

When Raluca comes to Protection, Inc., seeking a bodyguard to keep her safe from an assassin, she meets Nick, and when the two meet each others' gaze, they realize they have met their mates. Now how can two such complete opposites, each convinced the other despises them yet also deeply in love - and lust, find a way to work together to keep the assassin at bay? So much is at stake with this one.

I love the Protection, Inc. series. What you get is what's on the cover: a love story, with lots of action, between strong and interesting characters. Each member of Protection, Inc., gets their own book, so you get a chance to find out what makes each member tick, so the background characters are just as interesting as the main ones. But the love - and lust - stories are strong, fast-paced, and involve shape shifters. What's not to love?

Set in the European country of Alpennia (somewhere near Ruritania, or so I've heard), this novel is set a couple of years after Daughter of Mystery. Margerit and Barbara still appear as point-of-view characters, but Antuniet and Jeanne, secondary but important characters from the first book, are center stage.

Antuniet Chazillen desperately seeks to restore her family name to nobility. She lost everything - nobility, home, family, fortune - when her brother was executed for treason, everything except her sharp intellect and her drive. These she has focused on alchemy, using a text that an unknown force seeks to steal back. Antuniet is brittle and untrusting, yet fascinating to Jeanne, Vicomtesse de Cherdillac, who seeks to bring her out of her shell and help her reach her goal.

Winding in and around all this is the ever-present question of power in the kingdom. Princess Annek rules, yet she has no children to be her heir, and there are plots afoot around both her brothers. Barbara and Margerit, who is now Princess Annek's thaumaturgist, find themselves entwined in the plots here, and how they are affected by Antuniet's alchemy.

I know I'm invested in a book when I have a definite opinion on who should be Princess Annek's successor (and will argue the point with you), and would love to have a talk with Antuniet about friendship and what it means. The people in this story are vivid and interesting and real, and I care about their choices and what happens to them. I suspect you will, too.

This is a great addition to the 2015 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide, filled with tales of, well, exploration and adventure. All the young protagonists face their problems with strength of character and intelligence, whether they be facing aliens on a new planet or facing space pirates on their own ship. I particularly liked "The Worms Won't Feed Themselves, You Know" by Deborah Walker, which has such an original take on the future that I've spent five minutes trying to describe it and not doing it justice. Read this one first. I also enjoyed "Where You Want to Be" by Jeannie Warner, which continues the adventures of Ollie and Dodge from the previous Guide. This time, their independence and control of their spaceship is threatened by one Jazz Hook. (Think about it.)

I recommend this book to middle school readers, but as an adult I loved it, too.

I've read all the previous "Chicks" books and enjoyed them for their fun romps and humor around women warriors in chain mail. This newest volume lived up to its predecessors. I think the weakest story was the first one in the volume, and it put me off for a bit, but I'm happy I returned. One of the strengths is that the stories stretch from modern tales in a big city ("A Girl's Home is Her Rent-Controlled Castle", "Second Hand Hero") to science fiction on alien planets ("Saving Private Slime") to fantasy with scheming wizards ("Burying Treasure"), all while maintaining the theme. Editors Esther Friesner and John Helfer did an excellent job, so if you like humor around strong women warriors, this book is for you.

When I was 10 years old I would have stayed up all night reading this book. The stories are varied, from a steampunk mystery to alien pets, from aliens visiting earth to humans visiting space, with families of all ages and types, yet each story is about a young person having an adventure. Standouts are Jeannie Warner's take on Oliver Twist, Eric Del Carlo's post-pandemic survivors, and Deborah Walker's solution to gender imbalance. I loved this anthology, and am looking forward to the 2016 Guide.
(5 stars)

It is convenient that I can go on a date on almost any day at almost any time, with the smartest and handsomest man I know. It's been a sorrow that my health has prevented me from doing much in this regard, even though people claim that marriage can stunt one's social life. Marriage has done the opposite, but my health, not such a help. Still, in the last few months I've improved tremendously, to the point that my husband and I (because who else would I date?) went to a movie the very day after we had heard about it and wanted to go to it. Yes, this is exciting.

We saw Chef last night, on a recommendation from a friend. Why yes, Chaz loved it, but I loved it, too. It's about a man who is a very good chef and a somewhat poor father, to a son whom he shares custody with, with a gorgeous and intelligent ex-wife. This is the story of how the chef becomes the chef he wants to be and the father he didn't know he could be, on a physical and metaphorical journey across country with friends and food. I highly recommend it. And if you're local, I discovered the theater at Santana Row has a discount on tickets for Tuesday nights, which is my favorite night to go to movies because it's the night that has the fewest movie patrons.

"I don't like zombie stories."

"This isn't a zombie story."

"But it has zombies in it."

"But it doesn't--"

"OK, fine. I'll read it."

Um. This isn't a zombie story, though it does, in fact, have zombies in it. It's a political thriller, and a story about reporting the news. Most of all it's a story about grit, and smarts, and loyalty, and politics inside a presidential campaign, and terror and fear. It's about finding and telling the truth, when powerful people don't want you to. And there are some zombies in it, but it's not a zombie story.

Read it.