Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has happened again. I have fallen in love with a series. There are only 5 or fewer series that I love like this. I like it so much that even before I was done I knew it would stay with me. There are moments in this book that the story grips me so much that I literally had tears in my eyes. Anyone who knows me knows that it takes a lot to drag that kind of emotion from me. Of course that is what I get for sneaking a peak at my book when I was at my desk. I was just drawn to this story. I tell everyone I talk to about it. I have recommended it to people that do not even read this genre. What genre is that? It fits in to a couple of different places and to have the family history reach back to Italy and Sicily of course is just going to endear this book to me even more. My online book buddies know I have been struggling to choose books for the last few months. I have not been in the mood for much of anything. I also said I would not review any books until I made some real progress on my dissertation. Well, the bad news is that I am reviewing this despite not making any real progress on that front because I really want people to know about this book.

Cold Fury is a book about a teenage girl who has this wonderful, loving family, not just immediate family, extended family, with some seriously dark secrets. These secrets basically explode out of the book and Sarah Jane ends up fighting multiple unseen enemies. One of the best things about this book is that we see Sarah Jane growing up quickly due to her circumstances, but, we also see her holding onto the basic principles that her parents and her boxing coach have taught her. In the midst of a lot of darkness she still has people in her corner and she is extremely bright and is learning on the run. I keep asking myself could I go to school in the middle of all of that? The answer is yes, if my parents wanted that for me and I could hold onto them through what they taught me then yes I could do that, which makes this story even deeper for me.

Doug, I don't want to give anything away about him, but, he is a rock star, all the way. In some ways he reminds me of Sarah Jane's brother Lou in how strongly they love and fight in their own way for the people they love. This story epitomizes strong, loving, flawed families. The action, oh boy, the fight scenes are excellent. There isn't one thing I would change other than wishing that book 2 was already released so I could move right onto reading it. The big problem I face here is the next book I read had better be amazing or it might be judged harshly due to no fault of its own other than being measured against a book that I am totally enamored of and am so happy I read it. I, of course, had to begin to semi-stalk the author so I am now following him on Twitter and Facebook and ready to demand book 2 right now. I so look forward to it!

Review can also be seen at http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...

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Blade Song by J.C. Daniels
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an advanced e-Arc of Blade Song from Netgalley.com. I saw the cover and read the synopsis and thought; this book might just be for me. I checked to see if I had read anything by this author before and found it was written by Shiloh Walker whose work I have not read before but have heard good things about her work. I did not know what to expect but I can say it felt a bit like the old Anita Blake and bit like Kate Daniels with some original flavor thrown in there. I really liked it. This was the story of Kit Colbana who had a pretty rough childhood, but, she had some kick-butt training in weaponry, hunting, and fighting. She is a descendant of some pretty kick-butt women. Unfortunately, she has been on her own for a long time. But, a good byproduct of being alone at an early age was that she has made some good friends and went into business on her own as a private investigator/tracker of sorts.

There really wasn't anything that I didn't like about this book. I had that same excited feeling I get when reading some of the other great action Urban Fantasy books. There is a bit of romance and it was a bit second to the story, which for me is great. There was a lot of editing needed in the e-Arc but it was an advanced copy which likely will have had some heavy editing done to it before the publish date.

The things I loved about this book included the fight/action scenes. The author does a good job with those. There are different supernaturals including some twists on the norm. There is a good storyline for Kit to investigate which makes for some contentious scenes throughout the book. The new relationships that Kit develops as she moves along the investigation are well written and I like Kit. I suspect when we get a book that has her meet head-on with her past that it is going to be a whopper! I look forward to the next book in this series!

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Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an eArc of Shadow of Night from Netgalley and honestly this is the first book I have gotten from there in a few months. I stopped reviewing books and updating my blog because I was neglecting my dissertation so something had to give. But, I made an agreement to host a contest for the newest book in the All Souls Trilogy so I am happily honoring it. Honestly, I am so glad that I stepped up to honor it. For me, having to wait a year to know what happened after A Discovery of Witches ends, was a bit painful. I put it out of my mind and decided to listen to my audiobook again just before the release of Shadow of Night.

I started reading Shadow of Night and honestly if it were not for my full-time job and my adjunct faculty position I would have finished it days ago. It seems like everything and everyone conspired to keep me from reading my book so I took to reading a few words or sentences when I could, like just before starting work in the morning, during lunch, during commercials, in the parking lot while waiting for dinner to be ready for pickup. I was so wrapped up in what was happening next that I just realized as I closed the book that so much happened in this installment. I don’t want to write spoilers but suffice it to say there were not any threads left unattended, or, at least if there were I did not notice them. The historical aspects of this story continue and really are expanded upon which I guess is one of the great things about having a vampire who has been around for hundreds of years and has enough status that he has met some truly interesting figures from history.

One of the great things about this book though is not just those historical figures but how Diana interacts with and affects the people she meets. Part of me wants to write a review that shows how overwhelmingly special I think this book is so that anyone who reads it will want to tell all their friends, family and even strangers about it and the other part of me keeps thinking read it over again right now and they’ll find out about it on their own. Something else that I found to be really good was the poetry, some of which belongs to others but some of which belongs to Deborah Harkness. “It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.” This is obviously a huge catalyst for much of the story, but, some of the beauty of this story lies in how the threads of the poem are weaved into different parts of the book. There is that tiny part of me that is also a scholar who loves reading this genre of book that wishes I had written it or could write something just as great that not only other scholars would love but those that love romance, fantasy, historical and travel would also love it. I’ve come full circle now and don’t suppose the last installment is ready for me to read since this one is just days from being released. I guess I’ll spend another year trying to ignore the fact that I’m waiting to see how it all ends. But, I will be eagerly awaiting the final book!

Review can also be seen at http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...