MADreads

How to budget for lamb and strychnine

A review of Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

It's been a while since I've read a rave-worthy young adult novel. But lately I've hit the bonanza with several titles hitting on all notes. Some of the hits aren't yet published so I'll leave those for a future post, but one of them is out and available and I'm thrilled that I can tell you about it. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger is set in the same ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on March 12, 2013 | 0 comments

Silent no more

A review of The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes

Though she'd already been writing for while, Linda Barnes broke out in the late 80s when she became part of the wave of women mystery writers that included Marcia Muller, ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on February 28, 2013 | 0 comments

Best of other worlds

Nebula Award Nominees Announced by

Nominees have been announced for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards. Winners will be announced in May. There are several familiar names in the group. Though I haven't yet read their current nominated books, I've really loved earlier books by N. K. Jemisin and Mary Robinette Kowal. And Tina Connolly has been on my radar for a while now so I'm going to move that book up in my TBR list. Novel ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on February 26, 2013 | 0 comments

Shaman in training

A review of Stray Souls by Kate Griffin

"London’s soul has gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows – but when Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she’s a shaman, she is immediately called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise. The problem is, while everyone expects Sharon to have all the answers – from the Midnight Mayor to Sharon’s magically-challenged self-help group – she doesn’t have a clue where to start." I don't usually start my reviews with the ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on February 18, 2013 | 0 comments

Is it me?

Others Love Them More

I usually use this space to tell you about all the books I've loved. Today I'm going a different route. I just finished Gone Girl for my mystery book group and I'm not a fan. (We're meeting at South Madison this afternoon so I hope none of the group will read this before then.) The book is technically everything it should be but after plowing through the emotionally difficult journey the author created ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on February 14, 2013 | 1 comment

Magic with a little soul

A review of Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas

Paranormal romance has been going strong for a while now. It's been doing so well that authors who haven't traditionally written in the sub-genre are adding getting in on the act. Sometimes with mixed results. Which is exactly the phrase I'd use to describe Lisa Kleypas' foray into the field. Justine Hoffman runs a bed and breakfast in Friday Harbor in the San Juans. She also is a ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on February 13, 2013 | 0 comments

Future Foreign Legion

A review of Andromeda's Fall by William Dietz

It's been a while since I've read some good military science fiction so I was happy to discover William Dietz's prequel to his popular Legion of the Damned series. His newest introduces Lady Catherine Carletto. Lady Catherine is a member of the powerful Carletto family. And that's not a good thing at the moment. Princess Ophelia has just staged a violent coup in which she killed the Emperor, her brother, and is now purging the empire of any and all who supported him. That includes the ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on February 5, 2013 | 0 comments

A life worth living?

A review of Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

"The thing about being catapulted into a whole new life - or at least shoved up so hard against someone else's life that you might as well have your face pressed against their window - is that it forces you to rethink your idea of who you are. Or how you might seem to other people." This is the realization that Louisa Clark comes to after her comfortable, if boring, life is upended by the loss of her job at The Buttered Bun restaurant. Louisa is twenty-six and lives with her parents ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on January 28, 2013 | 0 comments

The definition of mordantly funny

A review of The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

It's been six years since the last book in Keyes' Walsh Family series so she'd fallen off my radar a little bit. Which turned reading her newest into something of a surprise. It's been long enough (though Keyes did have a standalone novel out in 2009) that I forgot how darkly funny she can be - and in this case I mean DARKLY funny. You know that phrase you see in book reviews? "Mordant humor"? Well here is the book that defines what that is. Helen Walsh is having a very bad time. Her career as ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on January 16, 2013 | 0 comments

Calamity Jane meets Buffy

A review of The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins

I didn't have many expectations going into Lee Collins' The Dead of Winter other then that it was probably going to be different from just about everything else I've read recently. Boy was I right about that. This is a western featuring a Calamity Jane tough-gal protagonist who hunts vampires, hellhounds and other creatures of the night. Cora Oglesby and her husband Ben are the wild west's answer to monster hunters. It's the 1880's and the pair have been summoned, very ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on January 3, 2013 | 0 comments