Ramblings of an Avid Reader

Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating is Moira Weigel's first book. She's written for The Guardian, The Nation, The New Republic, n+1, and The New Inquiry, among other publications. She is also completing her PhD in Comparative Literature at Yale University.

Labor of Love delves into the emotional labor involved with dating, particularly the labor performed by women. Using over 100 years of dating culture as a basis, the differences in dating from decade to decade is highlighted.

From "calling" culture, where a prospective suitor would visit the home of the lady he fancied, to today's "hookup" culture, the nuances of dating has greatly changed. Chaperoned dates led into a time period where women started working outside the home, often as shop girls. Dating culture morphed into a man arranging to meet a woman for activities. Which led to women spending more on their appearance thus decreasing the small amount of spending money they earned. These women were sometimes called charity dates, due to them being dependent of the "charity" of their dates for food or other necessities.

There is a bit dedicated to "coming out" and the difficulty of finding dates. Which was helped along by certain codes to identify other persons who are gay. But the vast majority is dedicated to "straight" dating between men and women.

Various other chapters include: School, wherein dating on college campuses is discussed, Steadies, which implied serial monogamy (the technique of dating one person at a time, but not staying with that person until death), and Help, discussing the rise of dating services from video dating in the 80's to Tinder today.

Labor of Love was an interesting book from a cultural perspective. It's very seldom that emotional labor is discussed, especially in relation to dating. Emotional labor is unpaid, but is often more taxing than a paying job due to the emotional and mental strain it causes. It's not a particularly light read, but it was interesting enough to keep my attention. There are a number of studies, other books, and various other types of materials referenced, which has the potential to lead the reader on even more depth of learning.

Triad Blood is the second novel by 'Nathan Burgoine. And it's a lovely sophomore work, but don't dismiss his shorts either. They're quite powerful in their own ways.

Three. Three is always the magic number. Three wizards in a coven. Three demons in a pack. Three vampires in a coterie. But what happens when you take one wizard, one demon, and one vampire and bind them into a triad? That's the premise of Triad Blood. Curtis, the wizard created a ritual to bind himself, Anders the demon, and Luc the vamipre together. And as the saying goes, three heads are better than one. Especially when the individual powers of each member begin to influence and surprisingly change the powers of the others.

And of course, the strange trio draws attention from every single other group in the area. Which isn't always a good thing. Especially when it involves letter bombs, cars spontaneously combusting, demon attacks...And who can you trust in this town anyway? Who do you turn to when everyone wants you for their own reasons?  Fortunately the triad trusts each other, and also gets help from an incredibly unlikely source.

Triad Blood was a fun book. Not difficult to read, well paced, likeable and developed characters, and solid reasons for the conflicts. It was also fun to read a real urban fantasy novel with a gay triad. Usually it's only a couple, or it's not really urban fantasy. So this was a welcome change. Solid four stars for the characters, the plot, and the fantasy. If you're a fan of gay characters, urban fantasies, and (even better), both of them, you'll enjoy Triad Blood.

The Copper Egg is the latest novel by Catherine Friend. This book is what happens when you take Indiana Jones and put him in a blender with lesbian romance novels. And it works brilliantly!

Claire Adams is a disgraced archeologist, run out of Peru for a highly unusual way of finding tombs. She's stuck in Washington D.C. now, working at a middling level job transferring antiquities instead of recovering them. Until she receives a package from Peru, containing three small eggs. One gold, to represent the rulers of the Chimú, one silver to represent their wives, and one copper to represent all the workers that made the ancient civilization possible. And the enigmatic note, saying that Claire is the only one who can find the lost tomb of a Chimú king, Chaco. A tomb that is reported to hold the most incredible treasure in all of Peru.

Claire takes a leave of absence, and returns to Peru, where her ex, Sochi Castillo is still working for the Peruvian government to keep Chimú artifacts in Peru. Their breakup was heavily acrimonious. Filled with betrayal and nursed with hate over the last three years.

Sochi has also found herself in a predicament. She is a tomb preservationist by day, and a tomb raider by night. She believes that this contradiction is helping to preserve the heritage of Peru, but is all the danger she is in worth it?

The Copper Egg has a bit of everything, romance, double dealing, intrepid adventuring, kidnapping. Even the wise grandmother who knows everything, and is trying to lead Sochi and Claire to follow their hearts, instead of feeding their hate. The book goes back and forth in POV from Claire to Sochi, and details their relationship in flashbacks. We learn why both Claire and Sochi refused to contact each other, and why they are reluctant to work together to find the tomb that has brought Claire back to Peru.

I really enjoyed The Copper Egg, I liked the swashbuckling that Claire embodies, and the love of Peru's history that Sochi holds. Their relationship was beautiful, until that last day, where a disagreement exploded into the end of their love. The book is well written, the characters well developed, and I was left wondering what was going to happen next, both between Claire & Sochi, and with King Chaco's tomb.

I give it a solid 4 stars, and a recommendation to read it for yourself. So that you can see the beauty of Peru, see some of the destruction that looters are having on Peruvian history, and scratch your head a bit at the final few chapters.

Fizz has just been tossed out of his house, has 20 pounds to his name, and nowhere to go. Fortunately his cousin Ginger works in a pub and happens to have a room for Fizz. It's a room that he'll have to himself. At least he's the only human occupant of the room.

Fizz is struggling with some serious mental illness, and it seems to make him an easy target for the nasty, evil ghost inhabiting the top floor of The Queen Anne's Revenge. The room Fizz ends up in. The ghost begins siphoning Fizz's energy, gaining strength and losing patience.

We're introduced to the other human occupants of the pub, Ginger, who happens to be Fizz's cousin. Ryan, another denizen of the pub who has a roaring crush on Ginger. Matt, the resident cook, and Sammy, the angry twink. We also meet Ash, lead singer of a punk band that meets up in the bar.

As the entity takes more and more control of Fizz, the haunting in other places of the pub get worse, until Fizz is possessed. And that's when all the horror comes to a head.

I can't really go into much more detail of the plot without giving everything away, but I enjoyed The Haunted Pub. It was a fun, queer novel, and had some good characters. I wasn't super keen on how Fizz was handled. In the beginning he was portrayed as being almost paralyzed by anxiety and fear, but after the encounter with the ghost, all his mental illness was gone. Life just doesn't work that way, and mental illness can't be flipped off like a switch. All the romances between everyone who lives in the pub was a little contrite, and completely unrealistic. It is a paranormal novel though, so I suppose in some other alt universe things like that could happen.

Anyway, I liked it, and I think that while it has a niche audience, it could be well received by that audience. Queer romance with ghost stories aren't for everyone, but you really should give The Haunted Pub a shot. 

A Matter of Doubt is the second book in the Magic Incarnate series by Nicole Zoltack. It starts six months after the end of A Question of Faith, and it maintains the level of intensity right from the start.

Crystal wakes up in her coffin, and tries to use her magic to move the wood and dirt. But nothing happens. Her magic is gone. Not just hidden away, waiting to be tapped like before. It's gone, completely empty. Fortunately, Gavin shows up to rescue Crystal. And fill her in on the events of the six months following her sacrificing herself to save everyone she loves during the battle between witches and shamans that threatened to end the world.

The pair hides out for a bit, trying to regroup and formulate a plan for anything. They decide to visit the witches, after all, they created Crystal, they should be able to help her. But they cant. They don't know why her powers are gone, but there is one person who might. But they'll have to search mightily to find the Seer. And on the way, the duo meets Shira, a shaman, and the trio keeps on the trek to locate the Seer.

There aren't many answers from the Seer, but that won't deter Crystal. She's on a mission, and nothing is going to stop her. Not trying to defeat Gavin's father the witch hunter. Not trying to teach Gavin how to use his magic. Not helping Shira to find her second form. And probably not Crystal's new ability to shift form, even though her ability to shift could put her life and sanity in jeopardy.

The book was great. The intensity that was built up in A Question of Faith never fell, and the story didn't disappoint. Gavin got more fleshed out, and the addition of his acceptance and beginning usage of his magic only added to his character. Crystal grows too, struggling with the loss of her magic, the loss of her friends and family who think her dead, and the uncertainty of where she's supposed to go from here. The addition of Shira was lovely. She's a fledgling shaman, one who hasn't found her second form, and that learning is thrust upon her in a most abrupt way.

I'm recommending this book to the same groups I did the first one. And the knowledge that Ms. Zoltack is busily working on book three helps to ease my frustration at how this book ends. Don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant place to end this section of the story, but it's also incredibly frustrating because you need to know what happens next. But it's going to be worth it. I've got the faith that Crystal is beginning to doubt.

Between is the debut novel from Dora Hilburn. It's a bit of an odd love triangle, a small town yet worldly boy, a big town innocent girl, and a ghost.

Anna Riggs, fresh out of high school, has just inherited an old, supposedly haunted house in Florida. Her father Walter, an archaeologist, comes along to help remodel the house so Anna can put it up for sale to finance her college education. But as soon as they get to Apalachicola, Anna meets Eric Bennett. Eric volunteers to help Anna renovate the house, hoping to "meet" whomever is haunting it.

During the beginning of the renovation, Anna feels like she's being watched. And she hears a strange voice. Enter Wyatt, the ghost in the house. Anna and Wyatt start spending every night together, talking. Until the day Wyatt decides to become corporeal. He and Anna spend the day together, but Wyatt notices something strange in the ether.

After becoming flesh, Wyatt warns Anna that he'll have to go away for a while to gain his strength back. While he's gone he meets the strange thing that he saw at the fort. It's something evil, something that wants Anna. And it's up to Wyatt to try to defeat it in the space Between.

While Wyatt is gone, fighting the being stalking Anna, Eric and Anna begin to spend more and more time together, introducing Anna to his family, and taking her to see FSU. Anna decided that she wants to stay near Apalachicola, after all, she has a house, she has friends, and she has Wyatt. At least she has Wyatt for now.

Between is a YA paranormal romance. It's not a bad book, it's not very well edited, and there are some serious formatting issues. At least there were in the ARC that I received. These may have been fixed, but there is at least one other comment on Amazon about the formatting and editing issues. That did distract from my being able to immerse myself in the book. Also, the character of Anna was extremely naive. For being a HS graduate from Chicago, she just didn't seem to have enough life experience.

I can't say that I didn't like Between, but it wasn't fantastic. It really had a great idea for a story, just some of it didn't live up to the promise. Anna came across as very desperate to be in a relationship, either with Wyatt or Eric. Eric had his moments, but just seemed to be the sidekick. For being an essential character, he wasn't that fleshed out. Wyatt was probably my favourite character. And he was just lost until Anna came along. He hung out in an unoccupied house for a century, being given several chances to "go into the light", but didn't because he felt he was missing something. And the something was Anna.

I don't have much of a recommendation for it. It didn't grab me enough to tell my adult friends about it, and I don't think there's enough action (for lack of a better word) to interest the young people I know. It's not a bad book, not at all, it just didn't grab me as much as I expected. Like I said, the plot has some awesome potential, and as Ms. Hilburn is currently writing the sequel, it does have an opportunity to grab that potential again.

Golden (Denny) Silver is just a normal college student. If your definition of normal involves siblings named Sterling, Quick, and Pure, living in one of the most haunted cities in America, having a ghost for a lover, and learning your family is a long line of demon hunters. Oh yeah, she's the next hunter in the legacy, and has a powerful demon living inside her.

After being called by her brother Quick, Denny learns that the accident that killed their father and left their mother in a catatonic state, may have been caused by something much more sinister. So she starts researching, and quickly learns that not only is the supernatural world very real, it's very deadly. And very, very interested in her. Demons have kidnapped Denny's girlfriend Rush, (although, can you really kidnap a ghost?) and one is also trying to weasel his way into her young sister.

From Denny's pulling all-nighters studying about demons, their habits, and how to kill them, to her exhausting physical training to become a hunter, she soon learns that there is much more to life than meets the eye. And that whole demon living inside her thing, yeah, that demon needs to be fed. It feeds on other demons, and if Denny isn't careful, the demon inside her could take over her. For good.

Darkness Descends is the first novel in the Silver Legacy series by Alex Westmore. The Silver Legacy is the Silver bloodline, and also the magical items they use to kill demons. It was a highly enjoyable read, and I actually read it all in one sitting, staying up far too late to see how situations resolved. The book ended on a cliffhanger, but also at a good stopping place. It could act as a complete book, not requiring a sequel, and still leave the reader feeling satisfied.

It'd totally recommend it to several audiences. The different themes were well tied together, and having several significant characters being LGBTQIA was nice. It's not too terribly common in urban fantasy to queer characters presented so realistically. It's not thrown in as a subversive plot, it's addressed the same as any other quality. So it's got attraction there, it's urban fantasy, there's action, supernatural elements, and family drama. So another book that I'd recommend to most of my friends.

Binding Ecstasy, Searing Ecstasy, and Divine Ecstasy are books 6-8 in Setta Jay's Guardians of the Realms series. If you've been following my reviews, you'll know that while I started reviewing these books separately, I've done 4 & 5 together and now 6, 7, & 8. It's mostly because the books really started setting me off. Rape, kidnapping, social isolation, borderline Stockholm Syndrome...So anyway, here's the last three books in the series.

Binding Ecstasy is the story of Bastien finding his mate. Natasha & Nastia are sisters, bred by Apollo to be his assassins. They have an interesting power, that they can turn to mist to attack, and Nastia has some abilities to "blur" the minds of the humans they encounter. Natasha & Nastia run an "adult" club, and are trying to stay as far under the radar as they possibly can, to avoid being found by the Guardians and exiled to Terartos.

Apollo was released from his chamber in the last book, and the sisters discover this. They're hell bent on capturing and killing him for all the torture he put them through. Unfortunately, the Guardians have other plans for Apollo. Natasha & Bastien have the typical meet/touch/mate/bond thing. No fussing, no fighting, just acceptance. Their powers blend, and they both become stronger. Just like all the other mated pairs.

For the added excitement, a rift to another world opens up, and just as the Guardians are about to capture Apollo, the warriors from the other world capture him and disappear.

Searing Ecstasy is Drake & Delia's story for the most part, but the mating between Sander & Nastia happens too. Delia was kidnapped by Cyril in an earlier book, and mated to others by Cyril in order to try to break the mating spell. But because Delia is completely broken, she & Drake can't mate. Because she has another beast and a "shadow" inside her, it's believed that mating with Drake and getting his dragon will kill her. So there's a bunch of angst over that whole thing.

The Guardians decide to release Hades in order to find Apollo. They figure because they're brothers, Hades should be able to locate Apollo, the Guardians catch him, and put him into a stasis chamber. Yeah, no. Apollo is missing. The link is there, but Hades gets nothing from Apollo. Hades eventually finds Delia and "fixes" her, so that she & Drake can mate to end all that drama.

Nastia & Sander realize they're also supposed to be together, but they fight the touching/mating/bonding as much as possible. As is expected when they fight the mating frenzy, they wind up being complete jerks to everyone as well as being taken off most patrols and such because they can't focus. Eventually they give in, and the rest of the mating happens.

Divine Ecstasy is Hades & Sacha. Sacha is in what amounts to a coma, ever since inhaling the poison of a special hellbeast. Hades gets damaged in a fight, and on his way down to the healing chambers, he gets compelled to walk into her room. He realizes she's his mate, and he wakes her up. Sacha was tortured by the Gods, so she's got all kinds of issues to work through, especially when her mate is a God. So Hades takes it gently and at the pace Sacha needs.

This book gives us new subplots, one from the Tria (a set of triplets that were banished to the Hell realm because they're horrible.), and we're introduced to Thule. Thule is another world vaguely similar to this set of realms, but the "ruling parties" are a little different. We also find out that Thule is where P's mother was from. P (Pothos) is Hades' son, but we know nothing about his mother, and it turns out that this is why.

Divine Ecstasy ends on a huge cliffhanger, and I think it was a really bad way to end the series. P meets his mate (who is from Thule), but the book ends with her and her brothers coming through the gate between Earth & Thule. And also with the Tria cackling about figuring out how they can break out of their prison.

So everyone besides Sirena gets to have a mate. Everybody besides P & Sirena are in their own little love-nests. And it just ends there. I think Ms. Jay could have written another book into this series for Sirena to find her mate, for P to claim his mate, and also delve into how to keep the Tria contained. I feel like she wrapped up everyone else, but left Sirena totally out in the cold, and that made me a little grumpy. She's the one who does all the medical care to work with the matings, work with all the injuries, and save everyone's lives. But she gets total short shaft.

I still can't recommend the series. The last couple books were less abusive, but it felt like there is a tradeoff with the smut. It could be that she was starting to tire of the series, and wanted it to end (much like I did), that could be an excuse. But still. No recommendation, and 2 stars.

Hits & Mrs. is Karen Stollznow's foray into the world of fiction. She is an accomplished writer with several non-fiction books under her belt, as well as being co-host of the Monster Talk podcast and a researcher of all kinds of extra-normal goings on.

CW: rape and sexual assault

Hits & Mrs. is the story of Claudia Cox and Gil Godsend. Claudia is a skeptic, trying to expose Gil for the charlatan he is. Gil is a self-professed psychic, trying to continue his past filled with deception. Or is he, could he possibly, be psychic? Is there a chance that Claudia is wrong about his actions?

Claudia has spent several years putting Gil out of her life and her mind. But once she thinks she's clear of him, several of his clients come to her with disturbingly familiar stories. Stories of Gil sexually assaulting them after one of his "personal reading" sessions. This inspires Claudia to open herself up to investigating Gill again. Hopefully for the last time. But each time she thinks she's caught Gil, something goes awry. Is he just that good at predicting her actions based on past experience, or is there something more devious at play?

Dr. Stollznow has brought the worlds of psychics and skeptics together in a way that I've never read before. She uses her vast knowledge as an investigator to expose most of the tricks that psychics use to dupe people, in an informative and entertaining way. Bringing Banachek (also known as Steve Shaw in the real world) into the book as Claudia's mentor is a brilliant move. It allows the reader to get more insight into psychics and how they operate, and also makes good use of his past work as a psychic to expose those very same tricks that he used to dupe people.

There are a few issues, there are characters that slut-shame sex workers a few times, there are several rapes, and the backgrounds given for both Gil and Banachek are rather long. But the backgrounds do work in the story, so it's not a terrible issue. And the rapes are well handled, there is no victim shaming from Claudia. There is a scene later in the book that sadly plays out like most rape cases, with the victim being blamed and the accusation being dismissed as "he said, she said". Sadly, this is a glaring example of rape culture, and of the dismissal of any claims women make about assaults against them by men in positions of power. (Not an attack on Dr. Stollznow's book or writing, just a sad observation on the state of women in our world.)

There were some plot swishes that I didn't really see coming, some choices that Claudia made that I didn't expect. They added some extra interest into the end of the book, and the final reveal was completely unexpected.

I highly enjoyed the book, and am already passing it to several friends who I know will find it enjoyable as well. It's a fairly solid introduction to the skeptical movement, and the exposition of psychics as con artists. I think people interested in the skeptical movement will enjoy it, and people who are interested in psychics may find that it changes their opinion. Especially once they learn the tricks of the trade.

Dope. Sick. Love. is J. A. Kazimer's first book in the Wilde Crimes series. Caleb Wile is getting his second chance at fame. But will a former junkie throw it all away again when his past comes back to haunt him?

Caleb is getting the second chance he never thought he'd get. After almost dying after the murder of his wife, losing his recording contract, and losing everything else he cared about, he just might make it. But he'll have to stay away from the temptation that haunts his every step. Never losing the cravings for heroin makes it tough to be in the music business, it's always available, and almost always free.

Caleb meets Zoë at an industry party, the beginning of his career relaunch. But is Zoë all she seems? She's got the signs of a junkie, her ex is a junkie...If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...Maybe not though. Maybe she has another secret, a darker secret.

Caleb is also still trying to figure out who murdered his wife. While he was sleeping off a high, she was murdered in their apartment. And it had to have been someone she knew, someone she trusted. But who? And will Caleb figure it out before that same person tries killing him too?

Dope. Sick. Love is a great book. It's a love story, although not a particularly wanted one, at least by Caleb. It's a story of friendship and loyalty. It's a mystery that just keeps getting deeper and more convoluted at every turn. The reveal of the mystery just kept unfolding and unfolding, I had no idea who it really was that masterminded the entire situation, and in fact, it wasn't just one person. Which just added to the feeling of falling down into the rabbit hole.

I've read several of Ms Kazimer's books, and have yet to be disappointed by any of them. Dope. Sick. Love. is probably my favorite of her books now. I'll recommend it to anyone. Interest in the grittier side of the music scene? Read it. Like mysteries? Read it. Like twisted love stories? Read it. Like your books to have a bittersweet ending? Read it. Like feeling smacked in the face by a book, and then turning around to read it again just so you can really get all the details you might have missed? Read it twice.

Trust me. Just read it. You'll thank me later.

Mother Knows Best is the latest novel by Karen MacInerney, a light and cosy mystery, filled with some odd happenings.

Margie is an Austin PI, and her latest cases have taken a turn for the absurd. There's the kidnapped teacup pig, who turns out to be a full grown pregnant sow, the dead man in the wading pool, who turns out to be the headmaster of her daughter's new school, and then comes the family drama to add to the tension.

The book opens with Margie taking a late night phone call from her partner Peaches regarding a dead man in a wading pool, dressed in tights and goggles. From there the book keeps rolling from situation to situation. Through Margie's escapades in a strip club, hunting down the aforementioned pig, attempting to make her way into the parents club of her daughter's new school, the support group for her husband's "conversion therapy", and a visit from her very interesting mother.

I can't say I really enjoyed the book. I just finished it with a feeling of "meh". The bits with the pig were pretty funny, I'll grant that. However, the trespassing, breaking & entering, kidnapping, and mild torture just felt way over the top. The mystery of who killed the headmaster and why was ok. Not particularly surprising, but it was ok. The path that the book took that was supposed to be "exciting" was just overblown. The legal ramifications of everything she did are astounding, and her partner, Peaches, who has the PI license is responsible for her actions while on a case. The plausibility of the story was just blown. 

Would I recommend it? Meh. If you like totally over the top scenarios in what is marketed as a cozy mystery, absolutely absurd situations, and action that leaves you feeling just "meh", it might be your bag.

Mother Knows Best just didn't know anything for me.

Lilac Girls is the debut novel from Martha Hall Kelly. An epic, page turner spanning two continents, and twenty years in the lives of three striking women.

CW: extremely graphic violence, surgical procedures, and severe physical and psychological torture.

Caroline Ferriday (who was a real New York socialite), works at the French Consulate in New York. When the war breaks out, her office is inundated with requests for visas, for orphan support, for any type of financial aid. And by the time France is invaded, her office is all but shut down, leaving Caroline to sell her family's silver to continue her aid to the devastated country.

Kasia Kuzmerick is lying in a field, watching the refugees wake when the German army overruns her hometown of Lubia, Poland. She follows some of her friends into their volunteering for the underground resistance movement, always watching, ever careful, knowing that one misstep will begin her one way trip to the camps.

Herta Oberheuser is a new doctor, working as a dermatologist, as that is one of the few postings suitable for a woman doctor in Germany at the beginning of the war. Unable to support her ailing family of the small salary afforded to her, she takes a new position at Ravensbrück, not knowing just what her responsibilities would be.

Kasia is discovered on a mission to help the resistance, and is sent to Ravensbrück, along with her sister and mother. (They play fairly important roles throughout Kasia's portion of the book.) Herta Oberheuser is one of the lead surgeons at Ravensbrück, performing horrific surgeries on a group of girls that later become called the Ravensbrück Rabbits. A decade after the end of the war, Caroline brings the Rabbits to the US, helping them get the medical care that they were denied during and after the war in Communist Poland.

The stories of the three women intertwine in the book, rotating between the three chapter by chapter. The horrors on the war are laid out before you, in an almost lyrical way. Deeply disturbing and graphic violence is presented in a way that draws you closer to the characters, almost sucking you into their world. The vivid descriptions of scenes put you into New York's high society parties, into a German concentration camp, and into post war recovering Poland.

I highly enjoyed Lilac Girls, the story is historical fiction, but it is deeply rooted in truth. Caroline Ferriday was an actual person, one deeply active in the war efforts for France. Kasia and Herta are compilations of several different women, but the voices of them are rooted in facts. Horrible medical procedures were carried out on the Ravensbrück Rabbits, under the guise of "research" to help German soldiers recover from battlefield injuries. After the war, the surviving Rabbits were brought to the US (with great help by Caroline Ferriday), where they received modern medical care, counseling, and  toured the country.

I'd highly recommend Lilac Girls to fans of historical fiction, people who like WW II history, people who like stories with female protagonists...Mostly people in general, the Holocaust is being forgotten by people, because we don't have direct ties to it any longer, and it's something that needs to be remembered, lest it happen again.

In Laura Tillman's debut book, she covers the 2003 murder of three young children in South Texas. Murdered by their parents, the short lives of Julissa, John Stephan, and Mary Jane, have left long shadows over the community of Brownsville, TX.

In an heartwrenching look at the ramifications of murder on a small community, Ms. Tillman exposes more about humanity than expected. She communicated with John Allan Rubio for a number of years after his conviction of murder in the case of his stepdaughter, son, and daughter, and this book is a result of her continued reporting. Ms. Tillman spent countless hours walking the streets of Brownsville, talking to Mr. Rubio's neighbors, family, friends, and community leaders in her efforts to tease out why this tragedy unfolded.

Rubio grew up poor and hispanic in a Texas border town, those were the first two strikes against him. His potential learning disabilities and mental illness were additional strikes, and his "falling through the cracks" seemed to seal his life and destiny up. This book explores how circumstances beyond ones control can really can control ones life. The injustice of being poor, uneducated, fragile, Mexican...Of being different. All these things are polarizing in the American judicial system.

I can't really begin to pick apart this book. I vaguely remembered hearing about this murder case, and immediately deciding that Rubio must be a monster. How could a father brutally murder his three children? How could he possibly be allowed to life after ending the lives of such young children? The babies were 3 years, 14 months, and 2 months. They were found in squalor, drug using parents, brutalized. These were the words in the headlines in March 2003. Rubio never denied killing the children, why shouldn't he be put to death? 

Why indeed? What brings a person to that point, where they seem to crack, and commit an atrocity? Maybe the answers really aren't cut and dried, maybe they are firmly rooted in that person's past. Maybe the seeds of destiny, fate, predestination, are planted into us by our very surroundings? These are some of the questions posed to the reader by Ms Tillman. And questions to which there are no answers, easy or not. In fact, just trying to answer these questions for yourself tugs at our beliefs of what makes up a person.

I cried reading this book, on a few different occasions. I'm still asking myself questions about what might have happened under different circumstances. If Rubio had made it into the Army, if he'd not come from a poor family, if he'd been able to access care for his probable mental illness...Would the children have ever been in this kind of situation? Would the children be here today? Where would Rubio be in his life? But these are only questions. Ones that there can never be an answer to, because of circumstances falling together into a pattern that affects millions of people every single year. Poverty, skin color, lack of access to education to health care, drug use...Things that so many of us take for granted.

I'm recommending reading this to pretty much everyone. It should be required reading for sociology courses, for psychology classes, for people going into law, into political science...For people who care about other people, people who have begun to realize how polarized our thinking is, how "other" people aren't deserving of anything. I deeply wish that this book wasn't needed, that we as humans were advanced enough to believe that people are *all* deserving of an equal shot at life. But we're not, we won't ever get to that place.

This book hurts. It hits from so many different places in so many different ways. But all of them are needed.

In the interest of disclosure, I was provided with an ARC of this book from the publisher.

Sawbones, the latest novel by Melissa Lenhardt (which is also the first novel in the new Laura Elliston series), catches you from the cover, and keeps you hooked straight through to the last page.

Content Warning: Graphic violence and rape.

This novel begins with our heroine in a bit of a sticky wicket. Dr Catherine Bennett is one of the few female Doctors in New York, and in order to keep up with new surgical advances, she must resort to...less than savory methods of acquiring her cadavers. After a long night of dissection, followed by an semi-successful attack on her person, Dr. Bennett is returning home when she is interrupted by a long time friend. She discovers that one of her patients has been murdered, and she has been accused of the crime.

On the run to the West Coast, and under an assumed name of Laura Elliston, the wagon train she is in is attacked by Indians. Dr Elliston's best friend and maid Maureen is brutally murdered, and the rest of the party is either abducted or murdered.

Taking refuge at the Military outpost where she's been asked to help by General Sherman, the Doctor finds out that the frontier is smaller, and more dangerous than she imagined. The notoriety of being a female Doctor, the danger of falling in love with a man who knew her in her former life, and the ever present threat of Indian raids all take a toll on Dr Elliston.

Then, just when she thinks that she might have a chance at safety and peace, her world is upended again by someone who was supposed to be dead, someone her beloved William buried himself.

Kidnapped by another band of Indians, brutally raped and beaten, Laura is "rescued" by the man who has been following her at the Fort. The man who William buried during the War, his brother. Brutally beaten again, and used as bait to lure William out, Laura must make one of the most difficult decisions of her life. One that will echo throughout what may very well be the sudden end of her life.

I enjoyed Sawbones, there were a few scenes that really made me cringe, especially the rape. It wasn't quite bad enough to make me stop reading the book, as it was pretty well expected due to the time period. But it is still very much there, just as a warning.

Would I recommend Sawbones? Yes. It was a well written book, and it fits into a number of categories. Western, romance, historical fiction, historical romance, strong female protagonist, and adventure. It was a good read, and I've already pre-ordered the next book in the series. Just in case.

A Lady in the Smoke, Karen Odden's debut novel, is a lovely foray into historical mystery. 

Lady Elizabeth Frasier has just boarded a train following a disappointing end to her fourth London season. Ruminating on an odd rumour she overheard about the state of her dowry and the fight it caused with her mother, she's understandably distracted when the train she is riding in suddenly crashes. After escaping the wreckage with her unconscious mother and a gash on her forehead, Elizabeth is discovered by railroad surgeon Paul Wilcox, who tends to her head and puts Elizabeth and her mother into a wagon taking train survivors into town.

Elizabeth, finding herself at loose ends in the hotel, makes her way to the scullery where Paul is tending to the injured. After helping him all night, she happens to overhear Paul's conversation about the accident not being accidental. She confronts Paul about it, and is drawn into a web of intrigue trying to determine who would gain the most from staging railroad accidents. Fighting against time after Paul finds himself in gaol, Elizabeth and newspaperman Tom Flynn must find the evidence to not only clear Paul's name, but prove to Parliament that the investigation into the railroads is essential to public safety.

I quite enjoyed A Lady in the Smoke, there was enough subterfuge that the mystery wasn't obvious, but it also wasn't implausible for Elizabeth and Tom to ferret out the truth in the short amount of time they had. Also, the romance between Elizabeth and Paul was very sweet, it wasn't overblown and fraught with melodramatics, it was very understated yet passionate.

I give it four and one half stars. Well written, very likable characters, well paced, a mystery that was plausible...I'd certainly recommend this to my friends with interests in historical fiction, Steampunk, sweet romances, soft mystery, and YA fiction. I'm very much looking forward to what Ms Odden writes next, I have a feeling it'll be quite enjoyable.

(I'm going to be reviewing Tempting Ecastasy & Piercing Ecstasy together because I read them together, and am kinda trying to get them out of the way because the series is getting more and more triggery/disturbing as each book passes)

In Tempting Ecstasy, the fourth book in Setta Jay's Guardians of the Realm series. In each previous novel, the focus has been on a specific male, and his mate. This book is no different. This one focuses of Conn and his mate Dacia.

Dacia is an Immortal, and she knows there are others, but she has no idea how to find them. Her family has been living on Earth, quietly flying under the notice of other Immortals. When Conn scents her after the explosion at Cynthia's compound, he is bound to find her, at risk of serious pain.

This book was a little different, as it focused more on Dacia, and her needs. She didn't allow Conn to claim her right away. She forced him to "play it cool" until she learned more about Immortals, Guardians, the Realms, and the responsibilities that come with being an Immortal and the mate of a Guardian. With Dacia being Immortal, she also has mating frenzy, so she knows exactly what Conn is going through in his physical need to claim her. That was a little different, and made this book a little more palatable. Not too terribly much, as there was still kidnapping of Dacia and her sisters, the mild mental abuse of Dacia by Conn, and the overwhelming "Alpha Male" atmosphere of the book, and the entire series. But it was a little better. Still great, hot smut. But the storyline is starting to get a little old.

Piercing Ecstasy is the story of Jax and Ileana. Jax is pretty typical Setta Jay alpha male...Tall, chiseled, devastatingly handsome, yadda yadda yadda. Ileana is a damaged little package though. Seriously damaged and broken. Her parents were murdered in order to protect her from being experimented on because she has no scent to other Immortals. So she's untrackable. She can spell herself to change her hair and eye color to blend in anywhere. She actually is the one who find her mate in Jax first. She touches him to help further her cause of revenge, and starts the wheels of mating into motion.

That's a little different in the series, with Ileana being given the decision of touching her mate, or helping herself. Se seems to be the most developed mate character so far, and isn't quite as easily manipulated by the Guardians. That was a little refreshing, but there is still the mental abuse, the manipulation, and the overbearing assholeness of her alpha male.

I think this is one of the better ones so far, because Ileana is an actual character. She's got a reason to be wary, to not trust the Guardians, to want to do things her way. And she tries to play the Guardians into helping her cause. She doesn't really succeed, of course, because that'd change the series too much, and Ms Jay's audience doesn't want much deviation from her oh so naughty males, and the females they dominate. The smut is strong, and it's still very appealing for the fantastic deliciousness that Ms Jay writes into all her books.