DEFENDING ANGELS: A Beaufort & Company Mystery - Mary Stanton

I had such a great time reading DEFENDING ANGELS! I read the review on High Crimes (my favorite online bookshop) and immediately placed it in my online shopping cart. It arrived and then sat on my bedside table for a bit while I waded through a few other books until I was absolutely ready for a cozy mystery. A few days ago, I was definitely ready and began. And then was sad that I actually had to sleep at some point and couldn't keep reading. It is that good, I would be almost willing to forgo sleep.....I said almost...I like sleep and I like reading good books, so it was a wicked toss-up.
Brianna Winston-Beaufort, Bree, is a lawyer. She's moved from her father's home and practice and moved 200 miles south to Savannah Georgia to take over her Uncle Franklin's law practice.
Her first case is pretty quick to take. She's hired to prove that the death of a prominent billionaire was not accidental, but was in fact, murder. There is more to the case, and Bree's law practice, than meets the eye.
First, there's the location of where she hangs her shingle. It's in the middle of what's known as the Murderers Cemetary. Her landlady is sweet and making herself a part of the team that Bree is putting together. The rest of her team consists of the brother of the person Bree thought she was hiring and a former window dresser. There's also the PI, Gabriel Striker, who always seems to be just where she needs him when she needs him.
Bree's new practice is to run this Company of Angels and to defend those who have been accused by the Highest Court....and I do mean THE Highest, The Celestial Court.

This is a very wonderfully written book and I really look forward to the rest of the series as Mary Stanton writes them.
Five Celestial beans.......and the angelic bookmark.....

THE GATEKEEPER - Michelle Gagnon, draft copy

I volunteered last week.....I rarely if ever volunteer having been in the Air Force for 22 years (retired lo these last five years), but I saw a fab opportunity on Friday when I read the request from Michelle Gagnon, author of THE TUNNELS and BONE YARD. She was on one of the Suspense and Thrillers group on Shelfari, requesting a Beta reader for her draft of her latest book, THE GATEKEEPER. I jumped right in and emailed her my participation. I then read the part where she would ideally like to have it completed in a week...YIKES! I read fairly quickly, but this was also to let Michelle know where the slow parts were or if anything didn't make sense. I thought I might need more than a week.

Happily, my worries were for naught....I received her email with the draft in word format and I very quickly read and highly enjoyed the ride with FBI Agent Kelly Jones and her fiance, Jake Riley, newly civilianized and working for himself in the security field.

Jake and his partner, Syd, former Agency, are hired by a friend of Syd's to retrieve his kidnapped daughter. Everything begins to spiral to the dark side pretty much immediately.

Kelly Jones has a new case she isn't sure about and a new partner she isn't sure she can trust. Kelly feels she is on the outs with the FBI and is sure this is the reason this case (and this partner) are handed to her to handle. A US Senator from Arizona is found dismembered and impaled on a statue in front of the State Capitol building.

The two cases become intertwined as the reader senses it must, but it is done quite intricately and there was no eye-rolling on this reader's part, as I have done in the past with intertwining case efforts in the past from other authors.

The premise for the story is very current and gripping. This book is different from Michelle's previous two. No serial killers here. This is kidnapping, terrorism, homeland security, immigration...all rolled into a thriller.

I can hardly wait until November and I can read the finished product. I will re-review it then. It will likely get it's five beans, too.

Until then....four suspenseful beans......

A Very Nice Award, Indeed!

Thank you, Bonnie at RedLady's Reading Room awarded my blog the Prémio Dardos Award:“The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing”. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web“.

Bonnie, thank you so much for this. I love having discovered the blogging world and the friends I have made and being able to introduce the fun of it to others.

Happy Tag for Me!

DeSeRtRoSe tagged with a Happy Tag! Thanks toots!

Here are the rules..
1. Link to the person who has tagged you.
2. Write down six things that make you happy.
3. Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did it.
4. Then tell the person when your entry is complete.

Six things that make me happy:

1. My soulmate DH

2. My weirdjin child, Lady K

3. My family

4. My friends

5. Reading a good book

6. Living in America

Tagging:

1. Bonnie at RedLady's Reading Room

2. Becky at No More Grumpy Bookseller

3. Sherri at Sherri's Reading Jubilee

4. SuziBelle at Bella is reading

5. Mary at Bookfan Mary

6. Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner of the World

Lady K-ism of the Day

Lady K: "Mommie! That man just said (whispering) bastard!"

Me: "I know, he did."

Lady K: "It's a good thing he didn't say son of a bitch!"

Lady K: "And I know I can't say this until I'm 18, you and Daddy told me so, but which is worse? Bastard or son of a bitch? I think it's son of a bitch...but maybe they're equal worse."

THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION - Alice Kimberly

THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION was a quick and fun cozy to read. A nice sorbet to mellow my palate after the somewhat heavier paranormals and thrillers I've been reading lately. I keep cozies of all styles on hand for just such occasions. I especially looked forward to this one. I've enjoyed the series for a couple of years and happily anticipated when it would be time to read this one.
Penelope Thornton-McClure is a widow, lives with her son and her aunt in the small town of Quindicott above the mystery bookstore they own and operate. Pen also has a friend who happens to be a ghost. He is Jack Shepherd, PI, and helps Pen out with life and the mysteries that keep getting thrown her way.
This time it's a haunted mansion that her friend, Seymour, the postal carrier has inherited. He will get to live up in the ritzy part of town and someone isn't happy about it and it looks like they would be willing to kill to keep Seymour from moving in.
I love this series since it so resembles one of my favorite movies, The Ghost and Mrs Muir. Looking this up(I just love wikipedia), I also found that the movie was based on the book written in 1945 by R. A. Dick, pseudonym for Josephine Leslie.
Four spoooooky beans.....and appropriate bookmark (this is kind of how I see Jack Shepherd)

Interview and Contest at Amberkatze blog...Maria V Snyder, author

Amberkatze has a new interview and contest this week. Click here for the chance to win the ARC imaged and read the interview with Maria V Snyder, author of POISON STUDY, MAGIC STUDY and FIRE STUDY.

HEAT STROKE: WEATHER WARDEN BOOK 2 - Rachel Caine

I really like this series, even only having read two of them. I started reading Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series first since I love my vampire books. I heard so many good things about the Weather Warden series, I decided to give the first one a try. She had me at the fast cars Joanne Baldwin, Weather Warden, adores driving.

Joanne was accused of murder, hunted down and killed by her Weather Warden peeps. She was reborn as Djinn, the magic creatures who help the Wardens channel power to control Mother Nature. Only thing is, humans aren't really supposed to be made into Djinn and Joanne and David, the Djinn who remade her into one of him, are in some trouble now.

Something is causing havoc in Earth's atmosphere and it looks like Joanne is the only one for the job according to her friend, Lewis, one of the most powerful Wardens out there.

Joanne now has to learn to be a Djinn by feeding from the Earth's energy rather than continue to syphon from David's or they both will die. And she has to help Lewis repair the rift or Earth will die.

Four windswept beans......bookmark...

AN ICE COLD GRAVE - Charlaine Harris, BOCD

The Harper Connelly series is my third favorite series written by Charlaine Harris. First will always be Sookie Stackhouse and the vamp/shapeshifting gang. Second is Lily Bard and her non-paranormal peeps.

Harper and her companion, Tolliver, are called out to Doraville, North Carolina. There's been a significant number of young men gone missing in the small town and the grandmother of the latest missing young man has hired Harper to come out and use her special talent to see if there is death involved. If you haven't read this series, Harper senses where human corpses can be found. She's been able to do this since she was struck by lightening as a teenager.

Harper does find bodies and also stirs up a hornet's nest of malice. A lot of action in all manners of the word....

All that said, I wasn't as fond of this listen as I usually am. I think it was a mixture of hearing the tune, Doraville by Atlanta Rhythm Section, throughout my listen. It could also have been DH groaning at each perceived error in research by the author...."It doesn't get that cold in North Carolina!", "They have the death penalty in North Carolina!They wouldn't just put that a**hole in prison for life!"....sigh.....

It may have also been the narrator. She had irritating ticks in speech that grated at the edges. Not enough to turn her off, but just enough to cause some dismay. I would have given it one more bean, but for those factors.

Four ghostly beans....

HARM NONE: A Rowan Gant Investigation - M R Sellars

I am so glad BittenByBooks introduced me to this series! I know I have seen the author's name and his character's name on other blogs and in book reviews, so it was familiar. I say I was introduced to it by BittenByBooks since it was she who had the fab discount offer a month or so back and I took her up on it. Went to Willow Tree and ordered all of the M R Sellars books they had in the 'damaged' section of their site. All arrived quickly and great condition. The only 'damage' I have seen yet is this author's signature in the front of this book.



Rowan Gant is a modern day practicing Witch. He and his wife, Felicity, also a Witch, live in St Louis. Rowan is asked to help his friend, Detective Ben Storm, with a case that has magic written all over it. Someone is murdering women in a horrific manner and leaving a pentacle on the wall, painted in the victim's blood.

First and foremost, this is a fantastic thriller. I had to change this from my bedside book to my purse book. The descriptions of the murder scenes were so vividly written, my dreams were affected.

The magic is fairly mild in the beginning. Rowan and Felicity are Witches by religion and they are in touch with the elements of the Earth. The magic element begins to expand throughout the book, but never overtakes the thriller aspect. It blends phenomenally.

I really will need to take a break before reading the next in the series, NEVER BURN A WITCH, but I do look forward to the time I am ready to pick it up and begin.



Five magnificently eerie beans....(bookmark added later date)

Lady K-ism of the Day

"Mommie, you said last night that the Simpsons are on only when NCIS isn't on. Welllll, NCIS isn't on, soooooooo the Simpsons must be on!"

....priceless Lady K logic

Amberkatze Interviews Yasmine Galenorn

Amberkatze interviewed Yasmine Galenorn on her blog today. Yasmine writes sooo many wonderful books! She has a cozy mystery series called China and Chintz which I found after I started reading her other fab series called The Otherworld-Sisters of the Moon. This is an extremely well written paranormal series with three sisters who are half human and half fae. One is a werecat, one a witch, one a vampire. You have to read the series to get more info and you won't be sorry. It's terrific.
The interview is good, there's a contest to win one of Yasmine's books....click on the link above and give it a shot....

Take Me To Your Reader...Win a T-Shirt

Rebecca over at The Booklady's Blog is having a giveaway that should appeal to booklover folks. It's a good one and I am entering. Love books, T-shirts...free schtuff....

Original site for the tee is here....

UNDEAD AND UNWED - MaryJanice Davidson

Lordy! I love this series! It's like a nice smartass vampire sorbet between heavier paranormal, thriller, suspense courses.
UNDEAD AND UNWED is the first in the Queen Betsy series and I can't believe how long it took me to find this one and finally get a chance to read it! Thank goodness Our Lady of the Books had a copy and I snagged it before anyone else could. Then it became my purse book for the longest time. Now I am no longer on shift work, I couldn't get any 'me time' to sit-sip-read, dagnabbit! Finally made this one my bedside book and smoked through it in short order.

Poor Betsy, aka Elizabeth Taylor, has just lost her job, been attacked and then run over by an Aztec (the car I must avert my eyes when I see on the street). She wakes up in a cold sterile looking place and discovers she's in a funeral home ready for burial! WTH??! AND, she's shod in a pair of inferior Payless shoes and a non-quality fabric outfit! Her evil stepmother has 'splainin' to do....
Betsy hightails it out of there and finds she is attractive to all men and dogs. Her best friend is not overly dismayed to see her alive-ish and kickin'. Her mother is overjoyed, her father and stepmom go into denial when Betsy arrives to take back her high quality shoe collection that her stepmom, Ant, stole.
Betsy also learns that she might could possibly be the Queen of the Vampires. She learns this from Eric Sinclair, vampire yum supreme and his minions, Tina and Dennis. Betsy has pissed off the reigning main vampire dude, Nostro, in all his bad vampire cliche splendor. Nostro doesn't take kindly to being laughed at and ignored as Betsy quickly does.
It's a battle to the death-death....
Five smartass vampire beans.....bookmark....

Time to Vote for Readers Choice Awards

UrbanFantasyLand has a Readers Choice Awards going on for all sorts...all doing with paranormal genres subjects, characters, authors...Get on over and vote and there's a chance to win a gift certificate at an online book selling venue and it's FAB support for your favorite authors!

LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS: A Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris

The Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series is among the top ten, if not top five, of my favorite series. I read this second in the series a long while back, but have decided to add them to my keeper shelf as audioboks. The narrator, Johanna Parker, is absolutely superb for this series. I rented this one from RecordedBooks and will keep it with a coupon I received.
Sookie is trying to get along in her small corner of the world in BonTemps, Louisiana. She has a job she enjoys and a boyfriend, Bill Compton, in her life. He happens to be a vampire, but that's okay. She happens to be able to read minds and it's a treat to be with Bill since his mind is completely blank to her and he treats her wonderfully.
The drawback with being attached to vampires and with her ability, or disability as she calls it, is that she is often requested to help Eric, the sheriff of this particular area of vampires.
Sookie is loaned out to go to Dallas Texas to help another big dawg vampire find out what happened to one of his nestmates. This seems simple enough, but Sookie and company find themselves enmeshed in a soon to be battle with a new church called The Fellowship of the Sun. The followers of this church don't think that vampires should be allowed to exist.
There is another mystery to solve, too. Sookie's friend, Lafayette, the flamboyant short order cook at the bar where Sookie works, has been found dead in the car of a local law officer. Sookie isn't especially fond of the officer, but knows he didn't commit the murder and she did consider Lafayette a friend and wants to do what she can to help find his killer.
And then there's the maenad....In Greek mythology, Maenads (Greek: Μαινάδες) were the inspired and frenzied female worshipers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine, and intoxication, the Roman god Bacchus. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". So this makes for an interesting storyline....

All told, this was a great listen. It made carpooling with DH quite bearable. He enjoyed the story, too.

Five southern vampire beans.....

Oh Cinderelly, Cinderelly!!!

Ahhhh....live in help......

BittenByBooks and Carrie Vaughn

BittenByBooks has a chance for you to win the latest in the Carrie Vaughn series about the fab Kitty who is a nighttime DJ and a werewolf....Latest is KITTY AND THE DEAD MAN'S HAND and there are 15 of them out there for some lucky winners.

Lady K-ism of the Day

"I like that Agent Gibbs. He don't take any cwap!"

.....Just now as we watched Agent Gibbs shoot the bad guy in the butt on NCIS.....

MEAN STREETS - Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, Thomas E. Sniegoski

I have not always had the best luck with anthologies. The editors or publishers or whoever bunch up some authors and sell the book with a beguiling title. The stories inside are not so intriguing as a rule. One superb story, a few ehhhhh...and one really awful tale...at least to me.

So, even though I adore Jim Butcher and Kat Richardson, it was with some trepidation that I decided to add MEAN STREETS to my shopping list, let alone actually buy it. It was the first purchase of 2009 thanks to a sweetie pie husband who asked if I'd like to see if I could use my DSW gift card I'd received in my stocking. That was a silly question. And dontcha know that there is a B&N right next door? Practically nirvana.

Frolicked in DSW for a nice long while and then we made our way over to B&N. It was crowded and I didn't have my list and MEAN STREETS was staring me in the face and was the only title I could remember. Into my hands it leaped and it became my next up read.

Jim Butcher's tale is THE WARRIOR, with Harry Dresden, wizard and mystery solver, protecting a friend and his family from evil.

I haven't read Simon R. Green before, but after reading THE DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES and seeing the title of one of his series would make a great addition to my What's in a Name Challenge, it won't be the last. Once I started understanding the Nightside, the secret heart of London, where John Taylor, PI, lives and works...I enjoyed the ride. John Taylor can find anything and is hired by a woman who has lost her husband and her memory. She would like both returned, please.

Kat Richardson was the third story and Harper Blaine, Greywalker, has been sent to Oaxaca Mexico to return a dog to his master. The master has been dead for some time and it is up to Harper to find the grave and return the dog. There is more to the job than meets the eye. The dog is a ghost. There's mystery, revenge, and deep dark secrets to be discovered, too.

The other new to me author, Thomas E Sniegoski, was the fourth and last novella in the book. Boston is the setting for fallen angel - turned - private detective Remy Chandler is tasked to find the murderer of Noah. Yep, that 'build me an Ark, Noah' guy. When you are touched and tasked by God, you get longevity. And someone has murdered him.

All four novellas in MEAN STREETS are worth five ghost dog, dead guy, who killed the ark builder, wizard beans.....and the bookmark