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Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters Book 06) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: In 1910, in an alternate London, a penniless young dancer is visited by a cat who communicates with her mind to mind. Though she is certain she must be going mad, she is desperate enough to follow the cat’s advice and impersonates a famous Russian ballerina. The cat, it turns out, is actually an Elemental Earth Spirit, and leads her to minor stardom. Meanwhile, the real Russian ballerina has fallen victim to an evil troll who takes over her body and kills her patrons, drinking their life essences in order to strengthen his powers. And soon, the troll focuses his dark attentions on the young dancer… Buy From:

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This is the 6th book in the Elemental Masters series by Mercedes Lackey and this was the second time I reread the book. Lackey is one of my favorite authors and I really like this series. It takes the world of early 1900’s and injects a bit of fantasy into it so that magic is real in that world. This book follows the life of Ninette Dupond who is a young dancer without any prospects and is in danger of starving to death when she is rescued by a talking cat who was charged by her father, an elemental mage to protect her.

The cat (Thomas) brings her over to England and helps her get in touch with a group of Elemental mages who have a Music house they are trying to revive with a new sort of performance. The storyline is quite simple and Lackey shows her skill in bringing the world of music dancers and ballet to life. One part I didn’t like was that the book seems to break continuity from the other books in the series. For example, in one of the scenes Jonathon fumes about how there is no way to communicate with other masters where there is an emergency and how it was impossible to get masters to work together on any issue that didn’t have global implications. Which is something that is already established in the other books. It could be possible that this book is set in an earlier time period but the reference to the ‘Old Lion’ puts in the same time frame as the other books. Other than these small issues the book was a fun read and I can’t wait for the next book in the series to be released. Final recommendation: A must read book, not as good as the other books in the series but still fun.

The Tree Shepherd’s Daughter (Faire Folk Trilogy Book 01) by Gillian Summers

Description: When her mother dies, fifteen-year-old Keelie Heartwood is forced to leave her beloved California to live with her nomadic father at a renaissance festival in Colorado. After arriving, Keelie finds men in tights and women in trailer trash-tight bodices roaming half-drunk, calling each other lady and lord even after closing time! Play-acting the Dark Ages is an L.A. girl’s worst nightmare. Keelie has a plan to ditch this medieval geekland ASAP, but while she plots, strange things start happening-eerie, yet familiar. When Keelie starts seeing fairies and communicating with trees, she uncovers a secret that links her to a community of elves. As Keelie tries to come to grips with her elfin roots, disaster strikes, and Keelie’s identity isn’t the only thing that’s threatened. One part human determination and one part elfin magic, Keelie Heartwood is a witty new heroine in a world where fantasy and reality mix with extraordinary results. Buy From:

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The first book in the Faire Folk trilogy is a light hearted book to read. Aimed at the young adult it was fun reading a book that wasn’t all gloom and despair. The characters in the book were mostly well written though some of the supporting cast could have been expanded a bit more. A lot of books have been written about elves and some of them even show the elves as a part of the Renaissance fair but still the book managed to stand out on its own and didn’t sound like a copy of other works. I liked the way the lead character takes time to work through her fears and finally accepts that she has the ability to magic after a lot of thought. In too many books it seems like the hero/heroine is told that they are magical and they accept it immediately which is quite unrealistic.

Final recommendation: A must read. Going to see if I can find the other books in the series, hopefully they will be as good as this one.

Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson Book 05) by Patricia Briggs

Description: Being a mechanic is hard work. Mercy Thompson, for instance, just spent the last couple of months trying to evade the murderous queen of the local vampire seethe, and now the leader of the werewolf pack – who’s maybe-more-than-just-a-friend – has asked for her help. A book of fae secrets has come to light and they’re all about to find out how implacable – and dangerous – the fae can be. OK, so maybe her troubles have nothing to do with the job. But she sure could use a holiday … Buy From:

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This is the latest book in the Mercy series that follows the exploits of Mercy Thompson, a shape-shifter mechanic who lives in a world where Vampires, Werewolves and Fae exist among other things. The book is a light read without a lot of complicated plots to follow which makes it a perfect book to read after a long day at work. You don’t have to worry about remembering complicated relationships or anything so you are free to enjoy the book instead of wishing that you had a notebook where you could write down who was doing what to whom. Mercy is a character who doesn’t take crap from anyone and is what I would call sassy. She is quite independent and not without flaws. If written differently the character would have probably become very obnoxious and painful but the way Briggs has written it, the character is quite likable. Even her flaws have been dealt with in a way that doesn’t seem unreasonable. In a lot of the fantasy books magic is used as a cure-all for all ills but not in this series.

She was raped and Briggs shows the reader that it effected Mercy a lot. The amount of emotional scarring left behind by the attack was dealt in a matter of fact way and not made into a woe is me cry fest that certain other authors like a lot. Final recommendation: Read the book. You don’t need to have read the previous books in the series to understand and like the book but it would make it more enjoyable.

Death Blows (Bloodhound Files Book 02) by D. D. Barant

Description: FBI profiler Jace Valchek was pulled into this parallel realm to hunt for Aristotle Stoker, a human serial killer who preys on vampires and werewolves. Now she works for the National Security Agency of the Unnatural States of America – and her boss is a vampire. At a bizarre crime scene, Jace finds a bloodsucker murdered by magic, fried to the bone and dressed in the costume of the comic book hero the Flash – a character who isn’t supposed to exist here. Comic books have been outlawed for their powers, including crossover spells like the one that transported Jace to this world. Soon, she’s following a trail of dead bodies into the sinister underworld of black-market comics – where a deranged madman gives new meaning to the term ‘super-villain’ . Buy From:

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This is the second book in the Bloodhound series following the life of Jace Valchek who is an FBI profiler specializing in dealing with mentally deranged criminals. In the first book we find out that she has been pulled to an alternate universe where humans are an endangered species and the world is ruled by Vampires and Werewolves. In this book she is still the only one in the world who has the skills to deal with insanity which is effecting the Vampires and Werewolves as a result of the events in the first book. Then she finds a dead body that is dressed in the superhero Flash’s costume from her home universe which doesn’t have a counterpart in the new one. Soon more bodies turn up that have been posed as other superheroes. Plus since comic books are banned in this universe she doesn’t have a lot of help in figuring out why the bodies are posed in a certain way. I am not going to go into a lot of details about the plot as it might spoil the book for those who haven’t read it. That being said I liked the book and it was a nice read with a lot of comic history thrown in. You don’t need to be a comics fan to enjoy the book but if you are then the book gets to be a bit more fun. Some parts were confusing at the time especially the one where they are talking about revisionist history but they make sense later on in the book. So if you don’t understand something just keep going eventually it all gets explained. It helps if you know about the way franchise reboots work in the comic industry. The characters were mostly well developed. What I didn’t like was the way a character got a complete personality overhaul and not in a good way. I guess it gives the author more leeway and opportunity to develop the emotional depth in other characters (Jace) in future books while adding a small amount of drama in the story but its still something I didn’t like that much. All in all I do recommend the book to others but caution them to read the first book before this one otherwise a lot of it won’t make any sense.