Darlene's Digest

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another winner from Ms. Jenkins, highlighting the lives of African-Americans in the old west. Rhine Fontaine is light enough to pass, a situation that's helped the former slave move through Nevada society, amassing property and wealth. But his commitment to living in the white world is tested when he meets Eddy, a black woman making her way through pluck, determination and her talents in front of the cookstove. Jenkins brings the west to life while shining a light on a part of American history too often neglected in the books and in popular culture. Forbidden will please her legion of loyal fans, and attract new readers as well. View all my reviews

Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner My rating: 4 of 5 stars Sometimes you get tired of dukes and billionaires and vampires and you want to read a story about people who lead ordinary lives, but can still have extraordinary love stories. If so, you'll enjoy Listen to the Moon as much as I did. This is another "Lively St. Lemeston" Regency by Rose Lerner, set in a small town in the English countryside rather than an exotic locale (like London[g]). John Toogood is a "gentleman's gentleman", a valet laid off and unable to find a new employer after he annoyed a powerful woman. Sukey Grimes is a maid-of-all-work, who catches John's eye with her plucky attitude and saucy smile, but he knows they could never make a go of it, because even in the servants hierarchy they're at opposite poles. But then an opportunity comes along which could benefit both Sukey and John, and suddenly they're seeing each other in a different light. Fans of Bate and Anna from ...

It's that time of year, time for this Florida girl to dig out the snowboots and heavy weather gear, 'cause I'm going to Boston! Not much could convince me to travel from Florida to Boston in February, but it's worth it.  #Boskone is the longest running science fiction and fantasy convention in New England, a weekend filled with books, film, art, music, gaming and bid parties. You can go to www.boskone.org   to register, and follow the news at their Twitter feed or Facebook page . I'm confident if we get snowed in, again, there will be enough party supplies that we won't have to draw lots to see who goes in the cook-pot. Actually, the Westin Waterfront has done an excellent job in past years coping with the occasional blizzard and a hotel full of science fiction fans. Kudos to them, and thank you for keeping the bar and restaurants well stocked. Here's my schedule. The (M) means I'm moderating that panel, and I look forward to seeing you at Boskone5...

The Theory of Death by Faye Kellerman My rating: 4 of 5 stars Part of what I've enjoyed with this series, ever since The Ritual Bath , is watching the characters grow and age in real time. Now Peter's semi-retired, and he and Rina have left LA for upstate New York, so they can be closer to their grown children and grandchildren. Even so, murder has a way of following them, and while their small college town may seem more suited to a "cozy" mystery than LAPD cases, there's still plenty of blood and gore. New characters are introduced (and return), and there's an outing with the entire family, so fans will feel like they're settling in for a comfortable reunion. Best of all, the murder had me guessing up to the end whodunnit, which is really the best part of all with a long running series. View all my reviews

Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fabulous story, great characters who come to life on the page, everything you want in a long, involved, complex space opera. Can't wait to read the next one! View all my reviews

Frisk Me by Lauren Layne My rating: 2 of 5 stars I liked the romance, but it was one of those situations where knowing the business under discussion made me itchy. Each time the heroine talked about her three hour feel-good special being her ticket to the anchor desk, it made me squirm. The Superbowl gets three hours. Presidential inaugurations get three hours. Documentaries like "Making a Murderer" get three hours. But a piece on a heroic cop who saves a kid from drowning? Uh uh. I was a TV news producer, radio news director and station owner in a different life. Now, if her piece had been a three hour expose of corruption, _that_ I'd believe, but puff pieces don't cut it. Aside from all of that, it was an entertaining story, but it didn't rock my world, and I just couldn't find that sweet spot where I could suspend my disbelief. View all my reviews

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente My rating: 4 of 5 stars Completely different retelling of the Snow White story, with a heroine who's not snow white, a wicked step mom who's got her own issues, seven interesting not-dwarvish characters and an old West setting that gives it a new twist. The language is evocative of Huckleberry Finn , and the story combines elements of American and First Nations mythology along with the classic fairy tale. Especially recommended to readers who're looking for more diversity in their sf & fantasy. View all my reviews

Evening Storm by Anne Calhoun My rating: 4 of 5 stars In the last story it was stationary porn. This time, it's lingerie porn. These books are making me lust, not for the hunky guys (wonderful as they are), but for the plot devices! All that being said, Calhoun does a superb job building a sense of place and setting a scene, key components in good erotic romance. Evening Storm is about the owner of an exclusive lingerie shop in New York's Garment District, the kind of design studio where you can drop thousands on a corset ensemble. One day a Wall Street wolf brings his super-model date to be outfitted and the sparks fly. The story unfolds in Scheherazade-style with the telling of erotic encounters to titillate the senses, proving once again the most erotic parts of our bodies can be our brains. This is a wonderful series, and I look forward to reading the next one. View all my reviews

Forty Thieves by Thomas Perry My rating: 4 of 5 stars Thomas Perry is one of my favorite mystery authors, and Forty Thieves is an excellent example of why he's on my auto-read list. It's a stand alone novel about a husband & wife detective team, both retired from the LAPD, and their path intersects with a husband & wife assassin team during a murder investigation. It's said too many cooks spoil the broth, but in this case, too many thieves are complicating the investigation. One of the things I loved about the book is the detective team, Sid and Veronica Abel, are in their 50s. As Ronnie points out, part of what makes them so successful is gray-haired, middle aged women are invisible to society, especially to men. She's an example to us all of how to be grown up and still kick-ass and take names. If you've never read Thomas Perry, one of his stand-alone books is an excellent starting point. Then you get to go on to discovering the Jane Whitehead novels, ...

Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another entry in the Elementals series, this time featuring a heroine who's not a Prime, one of the select few who can control the elements. I liked that. Corene is "sweela", fire-oriented, and her red hair is a giveaway as to her temperament, but she's not super-powerful like the primes. She's also a princess, but one who's been raised in a family full of secrets and deceit, which prepares her for the foreign court where she's thrown herself into the pool of candidates to be the bride of the heir to the throne. I liked this book because of its strong female characters, the friendships among the princesses who are not rivals so much as allies, the quiet, capable hero and the court intrigue. It will please Shinn fans, and it's a lovely addition to a series with elaborate and enjoyable theological world-building. View all my reviews

As some of you have heard, Amber Quill Press will be closing this year. Amber Quill has been my publisher for over 10 years, and I have nothing but praise for them. Without their professionalism and editorial skills, I might not have received so many awards for my books. What this means for me is I'm going to be re-grouping and figuring out how to keep my backlist available, while getting What the Parrot Saw published. I'm not going away--far from it. You'll still see me reviewing and talking about writing and blogging and doing all the other things I do when I should be writing. It just means a slight hitch in my plans for 2016. This isn't the first time I've had a publisher fold beneath me, and I've always moved on. I want to thank my loyal readers for sticking with me, and you'll be hearing more about my upcoming books in the future. However, if you've ever thought about buying one of my novels, now is the time to do it while they're still a...

Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz My rating: 4 of 5 stars If you're a fan of JAK (and I am), you know what to expect, so it's always an enjoyable reading experience when she delivers the goods. Secret Sisters features her trademark laconic heroes and plucky heroines, and this time the heroine was especially plucky, a hotel executive willing to make the first moves for romance. I like a strong-minded woman who knows what she wants, and apparently so does hero Jack Rayner. The mystery is sufficiently convoluted and surprising to keep the reader guessing, the secondary characters are well crafted and interesting, and the ending is satisfying. What more do you want? This book is what JAK fans desire, and it will please new fans as well. View all my reviews

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn My rating: 4 of 5 stars Delightful new entry in the amateur lady detective sub-genre, as Deanna Raybourn begins a new Victorian mystery series. The mystery surrounding Veronica Speedwell's background is intriguing, though I figured out what the big reveal was fairly early. Nonetheless, the characters are engaging enough that we can expect more adventures in the future, and the secondary characters offer their own intrigue and secrets to keep things going. The dialog was snappy, the settings were delightful, and Ms. Raybourn has another winner on her hands with Miss Veronica Speedwell. View all my reviews

Make Me by Lee Child My rating: 4 of 5 stars I love it when a mystery surprises me, especially when we're 20 books into a series. I thought I knew what was going on, I was wrong, and this made me very happy. It's a testament to the author's skills. MAKE ME is classic Jack Reacher. He's got no place to go and no where to be, so he gets off a train one day because the name of the town--Mother's Rest--intrigues him. Of course, since this is a Reacher novel, he stumbles into a nest of WTFery? and spends the rest of the book using his special skill set to straighten things out. There is a woman, not young, and not skinny (another nice treat) and lots of great Reacher moments. Highly recommended for hardcore Jack Reacher fans. View all my reviews

Clockwork Samurai by Jeannie Lin My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's hard to be the second book in a trilogy. You have the "gee whiz!" excitement of new worldbuilding in the first novel, a resolution of conflict in the third, but the second book has to do the heavy lifting with little of the glory. Despite these limitations, Clockwork Samurai carries the load and advances The Gunpowder Chronicles as the action shifts from China to Japan. Both nations are confronting Western interference, paralleling events in our own world in the 19th c. However in this universe, the Asian powers have airships and mechanical automatons and opium zombies and more. New characters are introduced, old characters re-emerge, and the excitement is heightened as the groundwork is laid for an East vs. West confrontation in the next novel. Readers are well advised to start with Gunpowder Chronicles #1 while the rest of us eagerly await the next volume. View all my reviews

Amber Quill Press is offering an early sale on ebooks, half off through Boxing Day (Yes, all that research I did for my Regency & Victorian romances does pay off)! Load your ereader with hot reading for cold nights, and settle in with a cup of your favorite beverage. You've been good girls and boys, and you deserve a treat.

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wonderful, moving, deeply satisfying conclusion to one of the most imaginative SF trilogies published in recent years. It's definitely going to be on my ballot for Hugo Nominees. I'm in awe at Leckie's ability to craft such well rounded characters without gender identification. It made me think about the people involved in an entirely new fashion, a different way of considering characters than the classic Left Hand of Darkness , which showed everything through a male human's eyes. Here we just had Breq and "her" people, both on-station and aboard ship. There were even moments of humor, and the scene with the Thousand Egg Song made me laugh. I look forward to reading more from this talented, award-winning author in the future. View all my reviews

The Crossing by Michael Connelly My rating: 4 of 5 stars Excellent police procedural as Harry Bosch, retired (under duress) from the LAPD, crosses over to the other side by helping his half brother Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer) investigate a case involving one of Haller's clients. Harry's not thrilled about helping the defense put another criminal back on the street, but the more he digs, the more he realizes there's a great deal missing from the murder investigation. Connelly shows his deft touch in laying out the case, piece by piece, even as we see Harry's troubled adjustment to civilian life. This latest Bosch mystery is sure to please the legion of fans who've been following Bosch's adventures for 20 books, and hoping for more from Connelly in the future. Harry may be retired, but he's far from done with investigating crime in the big city. View all my reviews

Doing No Harm by Carla    Kelly My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another sweet tale of good people doing the right thing, one of Ms. Kelly's trademarks. It's especially appropriate to the season and the current world situation, as the people of a small town struggling to survive open their hearts and homes to refugees who just want a chance, and a safe place to raise their families. The long war with Napoleon is over, and RN surgeon Douglas Bowden finds himself adrift, finally washing ashore in the Scottish lowlands town of Edgar. A medical emergency requires his skills and he puts himself to work, never planning on staying. However, he didn't count on spinster Olive Grant, who has worked herself to a nub assisting displaced Highlanders driven from their land by the clearances to make room for more profitable sheep. The novel deals strongly with issues of PTSD, both the form suffered by former military men like Douglas, and the kinds affecting small children who've been traum...

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas My rating: 4 of 5 stars A strong and satisfying conclusion to an excellent fantasy trilogy. The action was non-stop--almost literally. I was exhausted reading it, and the world-building was intense. Titus and Iolanthe, along with their friends and allies, are moving closer to stopping the Bane and removing his threat to their lives and their very world and there's no time to waste. The entire series is a Harry Potteresque world of mages living alongside mundanes, their world mirroring ours in many ways. I missed the scenes at Eton that made the first volumes so interesting, but our characters had outgrown that phase of their lives. If I have one quibble about the books it was characters with names that were too similar (Amara/Aramia), a problem which could easily have been avoided. There was a great deal to keep track of in the wonderfully complex plot, and having to stop and remember who's who didn't help. However, I would cheerfull...