Moon Called (2006) Patricia Briggs I learned my lesson years ago, although sometimes I’d forget, this time I remembered: after reading Guy Gavriel Kay, I must read something absolutely different. If I read any kind of historical fantasy after Guy Gavriel Kay, I am always sorely disappointed. Since I was still in the mood for […]
Dessert For Two: Small Batch Cookies, Brownies, Pies, and Cakes (2015) Christina Lane Let me gush, for just a moment: I love this book. I love to bake, but I don’t love having more sweets than Michael and I should (or even can!) eat. But in baking, unlike cooking, you can’t just halve or quarter […]
Comfort and Joy: Cooking for Two (2015) Christina Lane After falling in love with Dessert for Two by Christina Lane, I snatched up Comfort and Joy. The section we use most frequently is Anytime Comfort Foods, and although they’re not necessarily my comfort foods, what we’ve made is super delicious. One-Skillet Beef and Cheddar Paste […]
The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook (2014) America’s Test Kitchen In the past couple years I started to take cooking more seriously. I’ve always loved baking, but cooking? Not so much. On a whim I picked up a couple of cooking for two books, to see if not having to eat the same meal for […]
Thor Vol 1: Goddess of Thunder (2015) Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman I picked this up after reading the first bit in A-Force Presents which was a lovely introduction to some of Marvel’s female heroes. I initially wasn’t sure about Thor, because there was a good amount of background that I was missing, but I […]
Hellboy in Mexico (2016) Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Mick Mahon, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba I generally like the Hellboy books that are collections of short stories, but for some reason I had a hard time getting into this collection. It had lots of the things I generally like about Hellboy (like getting into (and losing) […]
She-Hulk Volume 2: Disorderly Conduct (2015) Charles Soule and Javier Pulido She-Hulk is fun, and I enjoyed reading these two volumes, but I don’t think that this is a series I’ll continue reading. There are a couple threads in this volume. She-Hulk has to work with a variety of different super heroes, getting miniaturized, and […]
Rivers of London: Night Witch (2016) by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, Luis Guerrero You get an alternative cover, because this is WAY more awesome than any of the actual covers. If it isn’t obvious, this story focuses a good deal upon Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina, the Russian Night Witch captured by Peter and Thomas […]
Dead Heat (2015) Patricia Briggs The fourth Alpha & Omega book occurs before Night Broken. Charles takes Anna out to Colorado to meet an old friend. “Really?” said Joseph tentatively. “You don’t remember?” “Someone asked me not to,” said Charles. “And I told him I would oblige him. So no. I don’t remember.” And to […]
Fair Game (2012) Patricia Briggs The third Alpha & Omega book takes place several years between River Marked and Frost Burned. After the werewolves became known to the public, Charles’ job became much more difficult, since infractions that were previously allowed to slide, now carry a death sentence–a sentence that in many cases Charles has […]
Hunting Ground (2009) Patricia Briggs The second Alpha & Omega book takes place soon after the events in Cry Wolf (around the events of Moon Called.) Bran has called a meeting with the European wolves, to discuss the fact that he is bringing the wolves out into the public. Anna is still coming to terms […]
Night Broken (2014) Patricia Briggs Book 8 finds Beauclaire wanting his father’s walking stick back from Mercy. “Beauclaire knew that someone was going to have to take out Lugh. He was, apparently, girding up his loins to do just that when Da took care of it. That didn’t mean he didn’t swear vengeance.” Adam’s ex-wife […]
Frost Burned (2013) Patricia Briggs Book 7 finds Mercy adjusting to married life–and being a step mother. It also has Mercy attempting to discover what has happened to the entire pack, when they are kidnapped by rogue federal agents. This book has several scenes that have stuck with me, including Mercy throwing up on Kyle’s […]
River Marked (2011) Patricia Briggs Book 6 is Mercy’s wedding to Adam, and further problems with the Fae and other supernatural creatures. And their honeymoon. “Are we going to Portland?” I asked. “Or Multnomah Falls?” He smiled at me. “Go to sleep.” I waited three seconds. “Are we there yet?” However, on the good side, […]
Silver Borne (2010) Patricia Briggs Book 5 finds the Fae wanting an item back from Mercy–except that she’s not certain just what is is they want back, and also finds the pack using those bonds against Mercy. I stumbled back away from the truck, shaking and sweating in the night air, the fae stick in […]
Bone Crossed (2009) Patricia Briggs The 4th Mercy Thompson book follows immediately after the events in book three–actually it replays and finishes the scene that the third book closes, and I appreciate the way this scene plays out. Mercy had really awful things happen to her in the previous book, and it seemed like she’d […]
Iron Kissed (2008) Patricia Briggs This is probably the hardest Mercy story to read, but I read it, and cried like I always do. Samuel had learned to write before typewriters and computers rendered penmanship an art practiced by elementary school children. His notes always looked like formal wedding invitations. “Shoot,” he said, the word […]
Blood Bound (2007) Patricia Briggs This is the second Mercy Thompson book, and finds Mercy paying back her debt to Stephan that was incurred in the first book. Why couldn’t the people I cared about just need someone to fix their cars? I could do that. I especially like the end of this story, where […]
Moon Called (2006) Patricia Briggs And now comes the re-reading of the Mercy Thompson series. Here’s the back-cover blurb: Mercy Thompson’s life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she’s fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn’t exactly normal herself. I […]
Cry Wolf (2008) Patricia Briggs This is the first full Alpha & Omega novel, and takes place immediately after the events in the novella. (And by immediately, I mean, the next day.) Charles’ Brother Wolf has claimed Anna as mate, but as Anna knows very little about being a werewolf, and absolutely nothing about being […]
Alpha & Omega (2007) Patricia Briggs (found in Shifting Shadows) The novella Alpha & Omega first appeared in On the Prowl, which I picked up only for the Patricia Briggs story. I recommend getting Shifting Shadows rather than that. That is not, by the way, the cover for either Shifting Shadows or Alpha & Omega, […]
Jinn and Juice (2014) Nicole Peeler I absolutely adored the Jane True series, and so I eagerly ordered this book. Then I got it, started it, and then put it right back down. It just didn’t grab me the way the Jane True series did. But recently I decided that I was going to give […]
She-Hulk Vol. 1: Law and Disorder (2014) Charles Soule, Javier Pulido, and Ron Wimberly The A-Force Presents Vol I was my introduction to Jennifer Walters. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy her story (after all, she’s not damaged and conflicted–she’s instead stable with a good head on her shoulders). But I wasn’t expecting a well-adjusted lawyer, […]
Black Widow Vol. 3: Last Days (2015) Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto This is the closing volume of the Black Widow trilogy, and was very — difficult and depressing aren’t quite the right words, but much of it was hard to read. We see glimpses of Natasha’s past through the story, and the volume closes […]
Black Widow Vol. 2: The Tightly Tangled Web (2015) Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto This is the second volume of Nathan Edmondson’s Black Widow run, and although I enjoyed it, parts of it were difficult to follow because I am not immersed in the Marvel Avengers world. Winter Soldier, Punisher–apparently Black Widow appeared in these […]
Rivers of London: Body Work (2015) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, and Luis Gurrero If you’ve been paying any attention, you know that I have a deep and (probably) unhealthy love of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. So when I saw there was going to be a comic, I searched because BY GOD […]
Black Widow Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread (2015) Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto Oh, I liked this one lots! I have not seen the Avenger movies, or read any of the Avenger comics–I just know tangential bits picked up from here and there (because: geek). Natasha is the Black Widow, who was formerly a […]
A-Force Presents Vol. 1 (2015) by G. Willow Wilson, Nathan Edmondson, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Jason Aaron, Phil Noto, David Lopez, Adrian Alphona, Russell Dauterman This is brilliant. These are six introductory stories to six female characters in the Marvel world: Black Widow, Captain marvel, Thor, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. It’s a […]
Mercy Thompson: Hopcross Jilly (2015) Patricia Briggs and Tom Garcia I’m a huge fan of the Mercy Thompson series, and also love Patricia Briggs’ short stories, so although I didn’t love the first Mercy Thompson graphic novel I read, I got this because I do like her short stories. This story puts a great deal […]
Fairest Vol. 5: The Clamour for Glamour And now, the final volume of Fairest. Like the previous volumes, this timeline is simultaneous with that of Fables, so although there aren’t any spoilers in either direction, you kind of need to know what was happening in Fables to completely understand everything here. That said, there was […]
Fables Vol. 22: Farewell (2015) This one has only been sitting on my coffee table for a month, waiting for a day when I could read through the last two volumes in one sitting. I think it’ll take me awhile–and probably a re-read of the entire series–to decide how I feel about these last two […]
Fables Vol. 21: Happily Ever After (2015) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Andrew Pepoy This is the penultimate Fables volume, and it’s been sitting on my coffee table since May (release date) waiting to be read. It’s for the best that I put off reading it until the final volume also arrived, as […]
Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed (2015) G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Elmo Bondoc The third volume of Ms. Marvel finds Kamala Khan still struggling with her identity as an Inhuman, but also with keeping the secret from her family. There are a lot of amusing jokes for older readers here–references to many general pop-culture geek […]
Vampires: The Recent Undead (2011) edited by Paula Guran “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” by Holly Black “This Is Now” by Michael Marshall Smith “Sisters” by Charles de Lint “The Screaming” by J.A. Konrath “Zen and the Art of Vampirism” by Kelley Armstrong “La Vampiresse” by Tanith Lee “Dead Man Stalking” by Rachel Caine “The […]
Werewolf Smackdown (2010) Mario Acevedo I’m a sucker for supernatural detectives (See: Simon Green & P.N. Elrod) so I snatched up the first Felix Gomez books when I came across them, then I seem to have forgotten about them, so when I had the chance to pick up Werewolf Smackdown on sale, I grabbed it. […]
Low Midnight (2014) Carrie Vaughn This is book 13 in the Kitty the Werewolf series, but Kitty is NOT the main character. This is Cormac’s book… well, Cormac and Amelia, the ghost who lives in Cormac’s head. I’ll be honest, I didn’t much care for the previous Kitty book, Kitty in the Underworld, but it […]
Who Buries the Dead (2015) C.S. Harris Set in London in 1813. “In my experience, people who view others as social or financial assets rarely do accumulate close friends.” A body is discovered at Bloody Bridge–its head sitting on the brick wall, the body lying nearby in the grass. At first, there seems to be […]
Dead Heat (2015) Patricia Briggs This is the fourth Alpha & Omega series, the story of Charles and Anna. Charles is the enforcer for all the werewolves in North America, and Anna is his wife–a werewolf herself who he rescued from a pack gone bad. If you have not read the previous books in the […]
Girl Genius Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City (2014) Phil & Kaja Foglio Needs more Jagers. Rating: 7/10 Published by Studio Foglio
Girl Genius Volume 12: Siege of Mechanicsburg (2013) Phil & Kaja Foglio The problem with Girl Genius is that it’s been running so long I forget much of what has happened previously. And the fact that I’ve had this volume for about a year before getting around to reading it doesn’t help. This doesn’t mean […]
Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal (2014) G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphonsa Marvelous! This is a lot of fun, and had me giggling multiple times! Kamala Khan is your average 16-year-old Muslim girl living in New Jersey–which means there is nothing average about her. She wants all the things she can’t have–or isn’t allowed to […]
Fairest Vol. 4: Cinderella – Of Men and Mice (2014) Mark Andreyko, Shawn McManus I’ve been hit or miss with the Fables spin-off series. I hated Jack, didn’t much care for Cinderella, but have quite enjoyed Fairest. But I was hesitant when I saw the latest volume of Fairest was Cinderella. This series continues to […]
Fair Game (2012) Patricia Briggs This is the third Alpha & Omega story, and although it is about Anna and about Charles coming to terms with the changes in his position as the Marrok’s enforcer, but even more important are the changes to the world that Anna & Charles and Mercy Thompson live in. Throughout […]
Fables Vol. 20: Camelot (2014) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Russ Braun, Barry Kitson I actually read this last month, but since it was on the day we caught the train, I forgot about it when I came back. It wasn’t until I was trying to clear off the table I remembered I’d hadn’t […]
Frost Burned (2013) Patricia Briggs Mercy and her step-daughter, Jesse, are hitting the Black-Friday sales when a panic attack causes Mercy to wreck her rabbit. When she can’t reach anyone to come pick her up, she discovers that with a few exceptions, the entire pack has been kidnapped—which takes some doing, kidnapping an entire pack […]
Downfall (2014) Rob Thurman I fully admit that I have been avoiding reading this book. As the series has gone it, it has become more and more clear that Niko and Cal won’t outlive each other. If one is killed, the other will fall soon after, most likely in a horribly violent and destructive way, […]
Hunting Ground (2009) Patricia Briggs The second Alpha & Omega book finds Charles & Anna sent to broker negioations with the European werewolves, to find a way to make the Marrock’s bringing the American werewolves out of the supernatural closet. The biggest problem is going to be the head of the European werewolves, who is […]
River Marked (2011) Patricia Briggs Although Mercy and Adam are supposed to be on their Honeymoon, unexpected gifts from the fae lead to (when dealing with fae anyway) the expected consequences, of danger and threat. But more importantly, we learn more about Mercy’s father, and finally meet Coyote (THE Coyote). Figures that are both tricksters […]
Silver Bourne (2010) Patricia Briggs This story has three separate story arcs: Mercy receives a call from Tad, asking her to check on the owner of the book fae book she borrowed, Samuel has started to sink further into his misery, and Mercy begins truly to have problems with the Pack, now that she and […]
Cry Wolf (2008) Patricia Briggs My reaction to this book, re-reading it and after reading half the Mercy books and the short story anthology is quite different from my initial read. First and foremost, I realized this story is as much about Asil and Bran as it is about Anna and Charles. I’ve grown to […]