What Are You Reading Between the Covers? - #17

Another week or so of late night reading for me. And I have three books to share with you. The first two are installments in Richelle Mead's succubus series featuring Georgia Kincaid and the last one is a historical novel about Mary Queen of Scots.

I enjoy Richelle Mead's Georgia Kincaid series. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read them. The third book, Succubus Dreams, has a delicious plot and a shocker I could not believe. I won't give anything away. Georgia is being preyed upon by a supernatural creature that steals her energy in her dreams. This being masks itself by fulfilling Georgina's deepest wish to have a child, sending her the most beautiful dreams of a family she knows she can never have. It's a good one.

But the fourth book in the series, Succubus Heat, is my favorite story so far. In Succubus Heat, Georgia is sent by Jerome, her demon manager, to discourage a group of satanic misfits from giving Satan bad press. Their antics in the book made me chuckle. Jerome is kidnapped and all the immortals lose their powers, which causes Georgina to contemplate life without her succubus powers. Georgina scrambles to find Jerome before another demon can be appointed to her district. Mead is just as snarky and witty in this novel as all the previous ones. There's a plot twist that's quite juicy as well, but I won't give anything away. It ties in with what happened previously in Succubus Dreams. And an old character reappears.  Highly entertaining. I would not miss reading this one!

After two succubus stories in a row, I switched to historical novels for a bit of a change. I read The Queen's Own Fool, written by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris, the story of Mary Queen of Scots told from her Fool, Nicola's, perspective. Nicola is a well-written character with a loyal heart. The politics in this story are intriguing, as history usually is. This was a quick read and I recommend it.

As always, happy writing and happy reading to all!

What Are You Reading Between the Covers? - #16

This review is long overdue. I always thought I could work through anything, but a death in the family has taken a toll on me in the past week. Three books to discuss today -- Richelle Mead's Succubus on Top, A Line of Cutting Women edited by Beverly Mcfarland, Margarita Donnelly, Micki Reaman, Teri Mae Rutledge, et al., and The Queen's Governess by Karen Harper.

I reread Richelle Mead's second book in the Georgia Kincaid series. It'd been awhile since I read the first one. Like many series, I waited for the new books to come out and then got distracted, but was pleased that there are a bunch of books for me to catch up on. The second book was just as entertaining as I remembered it. Georgia Kincaid is a succubus with a romantic dilemma; she's in love with a human and can't be intimate with him for fear of killing him. In this story, Georgia sets out to discover the source of a new drug her friend and coworker, Doug is hooked on. She gets more than she bargained for and that's all I will say. I'm not a book spoiler! Mead also created a misfit bunch of angels and other characters in the series, which are highly entertaining. I recommend this book and the rest of the series, if you like paranormal romances.

I switched gears drastically after the paranormal romance and dove into A Line of Cutting Women, a collection of short stories written by women that greatly moved me. The short stories cover all topics of womanhood, including the harsh ones like rape. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Woman's Studies. It is a gem.

There were a few stories that stuck with me after I finished the collection. One was Linda Hogan's Crow, which deals with the topic of aging and being alone. That story was followed by Sandra Scofield's Loving Leo, a tale of an elderly woman still holding on to her indepence. Shirley Sikes also contributed a memorable story, Falling off the Matterhorn, about a woman coming to terms with terminal breast cancer. It touched me because my mother is a 24-year survivor of breast cancer. It brought back painful memories for me of being thirteen and wondering if my mother was going to die - very good writing. There really were too many good stories in this collection to mention them all here, so I will leave you with one more -- Nighthawks by Carolyn Barbier. The woman in the story is a survivor of a terrible boating accident and makes the difficult decision to terminate her life support. I cried. This book is full of strong women and strong voices. I loved it!

After reading some shorts, I tuned into a historical novel, The Queen's Governness by Karen Harper. I've been on a Queen Elizabeth I kick since I watched a documentary about her a few months ago on cable. Karen Harper put many hours of research into this novel to make it as historically accurate as possible. I was surprised to learn of the discrepancies in some of the names/events that have been recorded in history. Her Author's Notes section was quite informative about her research. She did a wonderful job of detailing Queen Elizabeth's tumultuous childhood and her fight for the throne of England. This book was a wonderful read.

That's all for today.

Happy writing and happy reading to all!