Shakespeare's Trollop (Lily Bard Mystery, Book 4) by Charlaine Harris

Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris


Shakespeare, Arkansas, is home to endless back roads, historic buildings, colorful residents--and the occasional murder. It is also home to Lily Bard, the local karate expert/cleaning woman with a particular knack for finding skeletons in closets.

But when the local woman of ill repute is found murdered, being familiar with her dirty laundry could make Lily the next Shakespearean to die.

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another great read in the Lily Bard Mystery series.

When Lily stumbles upon the body of Deedra Dean, she is thrown into the investigation of her murder. Lots of interesting characters as we get to know the residents of Shakespeare a little better. I figured out the who of the murder, but not the why. It was an interesting twist and I look forward to the next in the series. I am just sad that it is going to be the last one in this series.

I love where Jack and Lily's relationship is going.

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Shakespeare's Christmas (Lily Bard Mystery, Book 3) by Charlaine Harris

Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris


ven in a sleepy Arkansas town, the holidays can be murder.

Lily Bard is going home for the holidays. More comfortable in baggy sweats than bridesmaid's frills, Lily isn't thrilled about attending her estranged sister's wedding. She has moved to Shakespeare, Arkansas, to start a new life, cleaning houses for a living, trying to forget the violence that once nearly destroyed her. Now she's heading back to home and hearth--just in time for murder.

The town's doctor and nurse have been bludgeoned to death at the office. And Lily's detective boyfriend suddenly shows up at her parents' door. Jack Leeds is investigating an eight-year-old kidnapping and the trail leads straight to Lily's hometown. It just might have something to do with the murders...and her sister's widowed fiancé. With only three days before the wedding, Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister commits...marriage!

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another great read in the Lily Bard Mystery series. I read this one immediately following #2 in the series, Shakespeare's Champion and am glad that I did. This one takes up right where the second one left off with Lily and Jack forging a new relationship.



In this book, Lily heads home to attend her younger sister's wedding. This is a tense visit after years of absence following Lily's horrible attack a decade earlier. While dealing with the rift between herself and her family, the difficulty of encountering people who know about her past and a string of murders that seem to be tied to Lily's new boyfriend Jacks investigation, Lily is thrust into the middle of a mystery that may involve her soon to be brother in law.



Watching Lily work out the mystery, while working out her feelings for Jack makes for a great read. I love the path that she and Jack are taking and cannot wait to start on the next book in the series, Shakespeare's Trollop!


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Shakespeare's Champion (Lily Bard Mystery, Book 2) by Charlaine Harris

Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris


No steel magnolia, Lily Bard is one blunt, tough Southern woman--a tiny, karate-chopping, bodybuilding dynamo who's come to Shakespeare, Arkansas, to restart her life after a series of traumatic events just hinted at in this second novel in Charlaine Harris's series (after Shakespeare's Landlord). When she slips into her gym for an early morning workout and finds Del Packard with a barbell across his throat, she doesn't think for more than a second that it's an accident. Not when it's the third death in a couple of months in a town hardly big enough for its own WalMart. Then the blue broadsheets with thinly veiled hints of white supremacist activity start turning up under the windshield wipers of every car on Main Street. Lily's a relative newcomer to Shakespeare, but as a cleaning woman for the local landed gentry, she's privy to many secrets that most outsiders never learn. When a handsome stranger keeps turning up at the scene of an increasingly bizarre series of events, including a burglary at one of her regular clients and a bombing in a black church, she suspects he may be more than an innocent bystander. Which is too bad, because he stirs up desires that Lily hasn't felt for any man for a very long time. Lily Bard is a complex woman who embodies many of the contradictions of the modern South--its dark side as well as its charm--and this suspenseful, deftly written novel will send new fans scrambling to read its predecessor. --Jane Adams

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The beginning of this book was very disjointed and hard to get into for me. Maybe if I had read it immediately after reading the first book it would have been better. It kept referring to things that had happened in the first book. But about 1/3 of the way through it started to come together and it got good! I really like Lily, but some of her logic makes no sense to me. I am glad that she seems to have finally decided on a man that she wants to be with and I am looking forward to reading more in this series.


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A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez

A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez


Amazon Editorial Review:

A tale of vengeance, true love, and cannibalism Being born undead can have its disadvantages, such as eternal youth and flawless beauty ---things most unsuitable for a witch. Hiding behind the guise of a grimy old crone, the witch is content living outside Fort Stalwart with her unlikely band of allies: a troll named Gwurm, an enchanted broom, and a demonic duck named Newt. She leads a simple life filled with spells, potions, and the occasional curse.
So when a White Knight arrives at Fort Stalwart, the witch knows her days of peace are at an end. The Knight is just days in front of a horde of ravenous goblings, and Fort Stalwart lies right in the horde’s path. But the goblings are just the first wave of danger, and soon the witch and the Knight must combine forces on a perilous quest to stop a mad sorcerer from destroying the world. Filled with menace, monsters, and magic, A Nameless Witch is a properly witchly read by the award-winning author of Gil’s All Fright Diner and In the Company of Ogres.

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wonderful, dark. comic fantasy. This is the first book I have read by A. Lee Martinez, but I fully intend to read more. I really enjoyed the characters, their interactions and the storyline. I read this book in a day and that is always the sign of a good book. One that you avoid all responsibility to finish. lol

The front cover says 'A tale of vengenace, true love, and cannibalism' and that just about says it all for this book. Great read!!

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Sunstorm (A Time Odyssey, Book 2) by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter

Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke


When Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the greatest science fiction writer ever, teams up with award-winning author Stephen Baxter, who shares Clarke’s bold vision of a future where technology and humanism advance hand in hand, the result is bound to be a book of stellar ambition and accomplishment. Such was the case with Time’s Eye. Now, in the highly anticipated sequel, Clarke and Baxter draw their epic to a triumphant conclusion that is as mind-blowing as anything in Clarke’s famous Space Odyssey series.

SUNSTORM

Returned to the Earth of 2037 by the Firstborn, mysterious beings of almost limitless technological prowess, Bisesa Dutt is haunted by the memories of her five years spent on the strange alternate Earth called Mir, a jigsaw-puzzle world made up of lands and people cut out of different eras of Earth’s history. Why did the Firstborn create Mir? Why was Bisesa taken there and then brought back on the day after her original disappearance?

Bisesa’s questions receive a chilling answer when scientists discover an anomaly in the sun’s core–an anomaly that has no natural cause is evidence of alien intervention over two thousand years before. Now plans set in motion millennia ago by inscrutable watchers light-years away are coming to fruition in a sunstorm designed to scour the Earth of all life in a bombardment of deadly radiation.

Thus commences a furious race against a ticking solar time bomb. But even now, as apocalypse looms, cooperation is not easy for the peoples and nations of the Earth. Religious and political differences threaten to undermine every effort.

And all the while, the Firstborn are watching...

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
While this book is billed as "Book Two of the Time Odyssey" it can be read as a stand alone, no problem. In fact the one character and the part of the plot that connect these two books are stretched very thin.



I enjoyed this book more than the first, but then it is a totally different type of book. This book is a more of an 'end of the world' book. The character, Bisesa Dutt, who is also in the first book is a very different character in this book and really a very minor one. The knowledge that she has of the 'Firstborn' plays a role in this book, but it is a role that this character really does not have to be present for. So there are my comparisons of the two books. lol As for my review of this book on it's own, I enjoyed it.



The world faces possible extinction when the sun sends out massive energy beams directly towards earth. It is up to humanity to figure out a way to save itself. The fact that this 'attack' is really alien made as opposed to a natural event comes later in the book and really has no impact on the overall storyline. This book is about humanity coming together to save itself in the face of extinction. An enjoyable read.


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Sons of Destiny (Cirque Du Freak, Book 12) by Darren Shan

Sons of Destiny by Darren Shan


Time seemed to collapse... There was a sharp stabbing sensation in my stomach... Steve crowed, "Now I have you! Now you're gonna die!"

Dead if he loses - damned if he wins. The time has finally come for Darren to face his archenemy, Steve Leopard. One of them will die. The other will become the Lord of the Shadows - and destroy the world. Is the future written, or can Darren trick destiny?

My review

I knew after reading the 11 other books in this series that we were not going to have a happily ever after. lol The ending was very imaginative. This young author has quite the imagination and gift for writing. I totally enjoyed the sagas of Darren Shan and leave wondering -- could it have happened that way?


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Lord of the Shadows (Cirque Du Freak, Book 11) by Darren Shan

Lord of the Shadows by Darren Shan


"All must fall to the Lord of the Shadows," Steve said softly. "This is my world now, Darren."

Darren Shan is going home - and his world is going to hell. Old enemies await. Scores must be settled. Destiny looks certain to destroy him, and the world is doomed to fall to the Ruler of the Night...

My review

In this next to the last book in the Darren Shan sagas we see a lot of evil. Unfortunately it looks like Darren is leaving a bit of his humanity behind as he faces the continuous loss of friends arranged by the evil Lord of the Vampaneze. Will he leave his humanity behind completely and become the Lord of the Shadows? On to the last book to see what happens.


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The Lake of Souls (Cirque Du Freak, Book 10) by Darren Shan

The Lake of Souls by Darren Shan


"If you step through after Harkat, you might never come back. Is your friend worth such an enormous risk?" Darren and Harkat face monstrous obstacles on their desperate quest to the Lake of Souls. Will they survive the savage journey? And what awaits them in the murky waters of the dead? Be careful what you fish for...

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another interesting chapter in the Darren Shan Saga.



In this book Darren and Harkat take a fantastical journey into another world where they encounter giant toads, dragons and other horrendous creatures in an attempt to discover who Harkat was when he was alive. It was a good read, and kind of nice to leave the War of the Scars behind for a bit.



Looking forward to finishing up this series to see where it all ends up.


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