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Making Sir Conan Doyle proud

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Perfect trilogy end with promising future. Emma Jane Holloway has given us an excellent (re)introduction to Sherlock Holmes through his niece Evelina. The Baskerville Affairs was an excellent trilogy with plenty of girth (each book tops 500 pages). Be prepared to tuck in for an excellent weekend of steampunk revelry with more magic, pirates, and royalty of all sorts. A Study in Ashes by Emma Jane Holloway A brilliant revival of Sherlock Holmes in this three part segue. BBC's TV show has once again made the Great Detective active in our modern imagination. He is a literary giant of lasting heritage. I was so pleased with how this trilogy has treated his legacy. The final of the series has only hardened the brilliancy of him and his niece.  Sherlock is clearly a part of the story without being the main protagonist. His character treatment felt spot on with the original Doyle imagine of the man from Baker Street. As we draw to the end of the steam barons' mysterious war

Quick Promotional Break

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Holiday Steampunk Weekend

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Amazing long weekend off from work filled with good food and reading! Now that only leaves me 10 days left at the grindstone for the year. Whoop! While I stuffed myself of excellent Indian cuisine for the holidays, I also took to the book-nook with a warm afghan and snacks for steampunk gluttony. A great refresher for the next two weeks. Lady of Resources by Shelley Adina I had a high level of anticipation for this novel. It was very hard for me to put it off for my holiday reading binge. I love the first four novels in the Magnificent Devices (as witnessed in reviews earlier on my blog). This installment has all of our lovely characters from the first novels, but takes the focus into the history of the Mopsies! I adored those two little ragamuffins and their tenacious spirit. I was so excited to hear they would be garnering their own spotlight.  Lady Claire's story had concluded with her departure to college for her dream of becoming an engineer.  Now we are five years d

Chasing the Star Garden by Melanie Karsak

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I was amazed at this book. The beginning hooked me and never let go. The leading characters have such depth and realism. There is gritty, mature content without being lush or overkill in the shock department. The action paces through at quite the clip. You have the protagonists moving through a somewhat formulaic quest of modern adventurers hunting the clues of the ancients hidden in plain sight. While you expect the adventure to have its twists and blind turns, I was still surprised with the actual storyline. Lily Stargazer has quickly become one of my favorite literary characters. She is fantastic. Her growth and development as she battles her current and past demons is heartfelt. She is a whirlwind of bad decisions that are very realistic. I appreciated the difference of her shocking decisions and struggle with being a better person. The ease of visualizing the characters was top notch in their pell mell rat race. There is a fair smattering of historical figures and places but

Alternate History is Butchery

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I have ranted previously of my distaste for alternate history fiction. Even with the badge ALTERNATE in front of the history part, these novels pollute our understanding of history just for a garnered fifteen minutes of entertainment factor. It is always great to play the what-if game with hindsight being 20-20 and all, but we should have a responsibility to the future generations to get the story right (what happens in 30 years when the fiction  part gets lost in translation?). Authors can create a fascinating world of how history could have been glorious with our romantic visions of the steampunk genre in an entirely created universe. That romanticism is what actually draws me to the movement most of the time. Emma Jane Holloway is one of my favorites by revitalizing a much beloved fictional  character with modern twists of science. Chris Kohout fell drastically short for me by using very real, historical persons in his twist. I really thought it might have turned out differently and

Next Step in The Sundering

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An excellent weekend for watching the poodles clean the yard and reading on the deck. I was invited to continue on with The Sundering series and after Paul Kemp's Godborn was excited to continue forth. I am still very honored to continue being invited to read these ARCs and happy to lend my review power to (hopefully) my many viewers.  The Adversary by Erin M Evans I am getting a little more settled with this series. Ms. Evans did a better job pulling the plot lines that came before her into her installment. This book really felt like it was supposed to be one of the series while being a standalone story. However, (don't you just hate those) I stumbled to get into this story from a writing perspective. Paul Kemp so far has had the best writing. For this installment, I was back to the internet for research on the vast races that appear in the D&D landscape. Our main protagonist is a tiefling. Completely foreign to me, but I wanted to know what the background of th

Russian Folklore

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I seem to be coming across many more novels these days surrounding the Russian/Slavic theme. Code Breakers was an excellent insight into British-Russian relations during the first World War and Lost Girl on TV has covered some of the Russian demon baddies in their episodes. Now I find myself researching the old stories in full and finding how they may have influenced many of the folktales I grew up reading (or maybe the other way around? Which came first the chicken or the egg?). Mistress of the Solstice by Anna Kashina What drew me to the book was a new avenue of folklore for which I am not currently familiar. I am a sucker for folklore. I have read the Brothers Grimm, Goethe, Rhymes of Mother Goose, Aesop's Fables, and other lesser known Western folklore. I have also recently become familiar with the tales from the Celtic histories of Ireland (who isn't intrigued by a giant named McCool?). The Slavic stories were completely new to me, yet so very familiar.  Baba Yaga is

Wizards of the Coast

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My first invitation to read new works by a publishing group I have read several series from already. I read the Dragonlance Chronicles and Dragonlance Legends several years ago from a Christmas gift from my husband. He had read the series when he broke his leg as a child and was left indoors (a difficult task to keep him at). I was impressed that he had read an entire series that was not physics or engineering related and had to check it out. The invitation to read and review from these well established authors was kind of nerve wrecking to receive actually.  The Companions by R.A. Salvatore I was leery to start reading this book when I first received the invitation. While I have read the Dragonlance novels, I have not been introduced to Drizzt properly in the Forgotten Realms by R.A. Salvatore. They are certainly on my to-read list, but as it spans over 30 books, I have yet to dig into the world. The life of Drizzt and his companions is well established and known to the D&D

To a Very Special Author

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It is momentous when a favorite author passes. I am still young, so many of the authors I grew up with are still here and writing strong. I can't quite remember the exact transition from young chapter books to full, mature reading. Typically my reading included more than the books just on the regular school list but most the time that fell to The Boxcar Children or Babysitter's Club series. (I would save up all my pocket money to come home with as many books as possible from the Scholastic Book Fair. Reader nerds dream!) At some point along the road, I was introduced to epic fantasy and Sara Douglass. That was well over a decade ago and I have been enjoying her works until 2011. I was very pleased when my in-laws kindly bought me her final publication, a collection of the never fully "published" short stories, for Christmas. The Hall of Lost Footsteps by Sara Douglass A beautiful collection of works that until now had been scattered all over the regions of Austr

Man vs. the Nature Within

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My hopes are slowing rising that authors are paying more attention to their second novels than the "future" sequels. They are making sure they have a fanbase who wants to keep on reading the series instead of taking their "genius" for granted and forgetting that Point B comes in between A and C. I am also being more realistic with myself that the sophomore flop is just characteristic of a bad author or, even worse, a really bad editor. As much as I may try to like them, because I actually like  them -the person, there are just people who can't quite reach that bar no matter how they stretch. A third or fourth book may come out that is a gem, but it is usually a fluke like the first with the next two books falling flat on their covers. They tried and perhaps will have a 1:4 ratio, but I have already given up. Shawn Underhill thankfully did not fall into this category. The Call by Shawn Underhill What an excellent improvement! The second installment of the G

Back to the gaslight district

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Time to join Sherlock Holmes, Evie, and the steam barons again! This series is definitely turning out to be worth the waiting, which favorably is not long for each publishing. AND, the digital prices are great at $5.99 per book with the paperback running on sale for $4.79 right now!!!! AND, Ms Holloway has even given us a few novella introduction pieces for free on Scribd to get us even more wrapped up in Evelina's world of romance and magic and dead bodies (delightful)! A Study in Darkness by Emma Jane Holloway Stellar follow up novel. Sophomore novels often suffer in my opinion from the introduction to the working world of the publishing industry (even with the self published). The idea has been born and the plot decided, but now your publisher asks you for three novels to get to the culmination of your story. As any great Sherlock novel should be, Ms Holloway's novels are in serial format. Each story builds off the ones that came before them, but do not rely on readi

Epic Fantasy for the Wee Ones

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After a good weekend of cleaning up, I can now dust off the brain and write this review.  At the Walls of Galbrieth by Alon Shalev I suppose this is to be a young adult fiction novel since all the protagonists are underage, but I never got the feel for it. There is no whining for utterly no reason, no angst, and nothing setting my teeth on edge. I certainly did not make a very good teenager, and I am not the biggest fan of reading about them. The creation of the New Adult genre has given me hope of some light-er reading that still has actual substance. Epic fantasy can really stretch the imagination and exhaust it, too. After finishing the incredible Baskerville Affair series and my dose of brain food, I was on the hunt again for the lighter side of fantasy without giving up the depth. So, I checked into the YA fantasy section. I selected this book from Twitter of all places and a sample chapter off Amazon. (Oh and I really couldn't resist the $2.99 Kindle tag.) All of the l

Another Trip Down the GMO Aisle

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My weekend just was drizzly and gray. The perfect weekend to finish up those pesky inside projects on my house. Oh well! Instead I spent the weekend cramming my brain with some seriously good brain food. Donny and Ursula Save the World by Sharon Weil Ok. What do I say about this book. It exceeded my expectations yet was not close to what I expected. Is that a conundrum or impossibility? The very perplexing nature of my reaction is well suited to this story. The writing style is not my favorite but suitable for a modern fiction piece where we have thrown grammar out the #window. There are clear plot lines and definite character development. Some of the content I find wholly unsuitable to modest company. It is a book I will have a hard time recommending. I think there is beauty to the spiritual connected-ness of the mycelium from mushrooms. (If you pull up one mushroom, you can unearth an entire forest floor. While I am allergic to the fungi spore family, I still find them to be an