More growth in the author's skill is expressed in the increased depth and complexity of this next story about Aurora Teagarden, amateur solver of murder mysteries. Ms. Harris retains the pretty descriptions and amusing dialog, along with the expressive and funny character of her protagonist, while telling a more interesting and complicated story about more interested and complicated characters in the small town.

The second murder discovered by librarian Aurora Teagarden allows us to observe her maturing as a person and changing her life in large and small ways. Still funny, light, and interesting. I like these; they remind me of the mysteries Dorothy Dunnett wrote between novel episodes of her two huge historical epics, because while they are not nearly as complex or well-written, they have the same tone of pleasure in the suspense and danger as a relief from serious, hard work.

Slight, quick, one-dimensional murder mystery with a funny and entertaining lead character: Aurora Teagarden, librarian. This was unsurprisingly enjoyable: I like the author's other work very much and the tone here is similar but fluffier. I am surprised that it worked so well as a murder mystery, with just enough serious and dire moments to keep me in suspense for the end. Recommended.

The third episode of the adventures of Yelena, formerly kidnapped for her magic power, trained to taste poison in food and drink to preserve the life of her jailer, then rejected by her family upon her escape because of what she had to do to survive.

There are interesting ideas in these books (including one of the better treatments of telepathic horses). But I have moved from enjoying the first one to deciding not to recommend them by the third. Yelena is a Mary Sue: nothing happens without her and no characters are real, with believable motives and lives of their own, except her. And she keeps powering up for every new challenge. I'm reminded unpleasantly of the later Anita Blake books.

I'm willing to give this author another try, but not in this series.

And many happy returns of the day.

And many happy returns of the day!

Another entry in the tales of Rachel Morgan, a witch with a demon mark or two who lives in a church with a vampire and whose business partner is a pixy who lives in the church garden, this is a well-written story with interesting characters whose conflicting motivations pull the plot this way and that way through some real surprises. I'm impressed, and I recommend this.

Sequel to Poison Study, this is better written, with descriptions and more complex characters than the first novel. The author is getting better, but this still felt very rushed and sometimes more like a list of events than a story.

A romance set in a traditional fantasy setting (e.g., castles, horses, magicians, low tech), this first novel has some interesting twists and a strong, admirable female lead. Yelena is a prisoner waiting for the noose until she is offered the job of taster for the Commander. She almost dies during her training to perceive and identify poisons in food and drink.

The one glaring flaw in this book is ironically that it reads as if I wrote it: rather flat affect, with no emotional tone in most of the scenes, not enough descriptive words to let us know the characters' feelings and reactions. My other complaint is that while the lead is well drawn, other characters are mysteries and seem to appear and disappear only to aid the plot, but I think this is partly another effect of the lack of emotional tone.

Still, it's worth reading; recommended.

Sequel to Legacy of Heorot, the continuing story of pioneers on a different planet, dealing with an unstudied ecology that we didn't evolve to survive plus intergenerational social issues.

This book follows a lot of characters and succeeds in revealing most of them as interesting people with believable motives. The women...not quite as believable as the men, but better than I'd hoped.

The story is complex with sub-plots and secret agendas weaving together only at the end.

I really liked it; recommended.

Many happy returns of the day!

This was, unsurprisingly, marvelous. Great characterization, interesting dialog, fast action--but then, these three authors have collaborated in various combinations to excellent effect.

I thought I'd read this, but I must have read a novella or excerpt of the first half, because the second half was new to me. This particular book seems to be a first edition (must do more research to be sure) and is signed by two of the three authors.

Recommended.

Thanks to the wonderful people who sent me valentines using that doodad. I really needed it this year, that's why I asked and I appreciate the response.

Please!


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Disjointed, episodic finale (I hope) to the trilogy begun with Idlewild. I wish I hadn't read this, it rather spoiled the other two for me. Only one character turned out better than I expected.

Also too much speechifying and screeds by the author. Not recommended.

Please!


Get your own valentinr

I didn't realize when I picked this up that it was a sequel; in fact I didn't realize it until more than halfway through the book. That's partly because it's extremely well written! The info-dumps that refer to events in the previous book flowed completely naturally from the story and in the dialog.

This author successfully overcomes my complaint about poorly-written women characters by making the protagonist dumb about women, while writing enough that I could conceive of the women characters as people.

I enjoyed the convoluted murder mystery at the core of the story, and the worldbuilding was nice. Recommended.

A sequel to Idlewild, it's hard to review this without giving spoilers for both books. It is mostly told in snippets from the diaries of the various characters, with at least one of them being unreliable.

I found it hard to get into this story about a bunch of teenagers and the end of the world as we know it. I persisted and it grabbed me about 20 pages in, and made the effort worthwhile.

Not a particularly original idea in the bunch, but well executed. As is my usual complaint when reading men authors, I didn't find the women believable. I doubt I'll ever know whether this is more because I am that different from most women or because most men authors don't write women well.

The sequel to Greywalker, in this book the protagonist is still working on accepting her new ability to see and interact with paranormal/supernatural entities and power.

This is better written than the first (a good sign, I like a writer whose work improves) and the mentors from the first book continue to help. Recommended.