Cover Blurb:
     In an effort to expose the newly crowned queen Marie de Medici's ruthless plot to assassinate her husband, French king Henri IV, professional duelist and court spy Valentin Rochefort inadvertently carries it out. Now the noble yet unscrupulous swordsman must plan a perilous escape from Paris, reluctantly paired with the insolent, insouciant youth Dariole, who also swings a mean epee. Their journeys take them to the glittering London court of King James Stuart, where they become involved in another assassination attempt; to a wind-swept Japanese beach, site of a duel between noble and samurai; and back to Paris. This sweeping and absorbing historical novel takes minor characters from The Three Musketeers and tells their breathless story 15 years prior. Fictional and historical characters and events are deftly intertwined among the multiple plot strands within an intriguing literary device--this novel is the supposed restored translated text of actual memoirs and related historical papers. Some highly charged sexual content should not put off fans of riveting historical fiction with strong romantic elements and a touch of alchemy.

Cover Blurb:
     Sue Quentin has reached the end of her rope-she's desperate, and there's only one way out. Her plan doesn't include falling for Tony, the mysterious hit man she hires. He listens when she speaks and somehow convinces her that maybe her problems aren't entirely insurmountable. He even thinks her little potbelly is sexy. So he's a werewolf--everyone has flaws!
     Sue enjoys being coddled by Tony, and, for his part, Tony likes the way Sue moans when he touches her. She begins to think she and Tony might have a shot at a future together, despite his unorthodox profession . . . and even though she doesn't know his real name.
     But when Tony's enemies-not all of whom are fully human-decide Sue makes a perfect target, will Tony risk letting his darker side out during the day to save her?

Cover Blurb:
     Every year, Yorktown, Virginia, relives its role in the Revolutionary War by celebrating the anniversary of the British surrender in 1781. This year, plans include a re-enactment of the original battle and a colonial craft fair. Meg Langslow has returned to her home town for the festivities--and to sell her wrought-iron works of art. Except, of course, for the pink-painted flamingos she reluctantly made for her mother's best friend--she's hoping to deliver them secretly, so she won't get a reputation as "the blacksmith who makes those cute wrought-iron flamingos."
     Besides, she has taken on another responsibility--making sure none of her fellow crafters ruin the historical authenticity of the fair with forbidden modern devices--like wrist watches, calculators, or cell phones. She's only doing it to keep peace with the mother of the man she loves. And Michael himself will don the white-and-gold uniform of a French officer for the re-enactment--what actor could resist a role like that?
     Meg's also trying to keep her father from scaring too many tourists with his impersonation of an 18th century physician. And to prevent a snooping reporter from publishing any stories about local scandals. Not to mention saving her naive brother, Rob, from the clutches of a con man who might steal the computer game he has invented. It's a tough job--at least, until the swindler is found dead, slain in Meg's booth with one of her own wrought-iron creations.
     Now Meg must add another item to her already lengthy to do list: "Don't forget to solve the murder!"

Cover Blurb:
     Rabbit is a trooper on the Border Guards, just another body in the King's army. But when his patrol encounters a Faena-one of the magical guardians of an uneasy ally-Rabbit is thrust into a political and magical intrigue that could start a war. Because Rabbit isn't just another trooper. He is the son of nobility-and a mage who doesn't know his own power...

Cover Blurb:
     Xylara is the Daughter of the Warrior King, Xyron. With her father dead and her incompetent half-brother on the throne, the kingdom is in danger of falling to the warring Firelanders.
     Before she was old enough for a marriage-of-alliance, Xylara was trained as a healer. She can't usurp her brother or negotiate a peace--but she can heal the brave ones injured in battle.
     But not only her countrymen are wounded, and Xylara's conscience won't let Firelander warriors die when she can do something to save them. She learns their language and their customs and tries to make them as comfortable as possible, despite their prisoner-of-war status.
     She never expects that these deeds, done in good faith, would lead to the handsome and mysterious Firelander Warlord demanding her in exchange for a cease-fire. Xylara knows must trade the life she has always known for the well-being of her people, and so she becomes...
     ...the warprize.

This book comes from Tor's relatively new Paranormal Romance imprint. I'm guessing it was started as a challenge to Luna, which is doing very well with its range of fantasy with a good dose of romance. Like the Luna novels, Warprize is a fantasy novel before it is a romance novel, but it does focus sharply on the interactions between the main characters Xylara and Keir. It has its fair share of misunderstandings as well, but these are due to different cultures rather than mutton-headed stupididy, which makes them a reasonable challenge rather than straight out annoyance. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although it does fall into my 'good, solid read' range as there didn't feel like there was anything extra that pushed it up to outstanding. For all that, it was indeed a good, solid read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Xylara is a good heroine, determined and strong and thrown into a culture and position she doesn't understand. She makes the best of it and soon builds a place for herself based on her own personality rather than the one custom - and foreign custom at that - has given her. Once most of the misunderstanding are cleared up, she uses her brains and her knowledge to find a solution that isn't only what she wants, but will be best for her kingdom. I would have been disappointed if she had either followed her heart without considering her people, or done the noble sacrifice thing without considering her own wishes. Instead, she manages to find a workable solution that is going to lead to more adventures but hopefully has staved off total disaster.

Keir did suffer a bit from mule-headed-hero syndrome, but he was working on changing it and he deserves points for that. He does also need to learn to talk to people a bit more - or at least to Xylara, as he seems to manage fine with his warriors. I'll be interested to see how he copes with his warprize in the next book, especially now he knows exactly how determined she can be. In a book that is as much a fantasy as a romance, he is a good, strong leader who is trying to bring about change, but is himself caught up in the customs and assumptions with which he grew up. His focus is on his army and his his warriors and their futures as much as his building relationship with Xylara, which is all to the best.

Vaughan has also created a solid cast of minor characters who step off the page as people rather than ciphers. I'm especially interested to learn more about Altira and Xylara's self-appointed apprentice Gils, while there seems to be a major storyline awaiting Joden once the party reach the Plains.

Cover Blurb:
     When Eragon finds a polished stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?

I was blown away by this book. Unfortunately, I can't put my finger on why, which makes reviewing it kind of difficult. Paolini has taken a number of fantasy standards - dragons, magic, evil kings, elves, dwarves - and woven them together into his own, unique tale. And rather than showing the seams where everything has been joined, the story is solid and strong, linked together and internally consistent.

Eragon is a good protagonist (although I thought he became a master swordsman way too easily), both competent and inexperienced, clever but also stupid at times and plain lucky to get out of it. He has the mysterious parentage required of a young fantasy hero, but it is left as a curiosity at this point (although I certainly want to know the answer) and isn't hammered into us too often. His companions complement his and all have a role to play in the story rather than being there for the sake of it. Brom is the wise teacher (again with a mystery of his own) who takes Eragon under his wing and guides him into his destiny. I suspect we haven't learned all his secrets yet and his influence is far from over. Murtagh arrives at an opportune moment and proves himself to be a strong ally, although I suspect his ambivalent position is far from resolved. And then of course, there is Saphira, Eragon's dragon. She is lovely, young and learning and yet wise. Magical but with no idea of how or why, she is Eragon's faithful partner, but doesn't hesitate to tell him when she things, especially if she doesn't agree with him. Even the minor characters are rich and alive and I hope we see more of people like Angela, Orik and Solembum in the upcoing books.

Paolini also proves that he is willing to kill of characters for the sake of the story, no matter how much the readers might be upset about it, and refuses to fall into clicheés when it would be all to easy to do so. I suspect that out 'good guys' will turn out to be far from perfect, although still an improvement over the 'bad guys'. I'm sure Paolini has more surprises up his sleeve for us and I'm eager to discover them. I've gone and ordered the newly-published sequel in hardcover because I can't wait for the paperback to find out what happens next.

Cover Blurb:
     Award-winning Asaro revisits the world depicted in The Charmed Sphere (2004) in an epic fantasy featuring Mel, heir to the Jaguar throne of Harsdown. Cobalt the Dark, a giant of a man with an evil reputation, frees his long-imprisoned father, the deposed king of Harsdown. After taking him to the king of the Misted Cliffs, both kings start devising strategies to regain Harsdown, but Cobalt, who secretly prefers not to wreak death and destruction, suggests that he wed Mel to avoid a devastating war. He is astounded to find that she is attractive and that she concedes to marry him, even if it's only because she wants to save her people. Unfortunately, the marriage truce doesn't involve neighboring kingdoms. Amid the ensuing turmoil, Mel's magical powers allow her to see that there is far more to Cobalt than meets the eye.

The Misted Cliffs started off slow and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. Especially sinced it started out with the resuce of the villain from the previous book in the series, by the man who the back blurb claimed would be the hero of this one. It also took a number of chapters for the main protagonists to ever meet each other.

However, once things got going, the book began to take off. Again, at first I was unsure as the hero and heroine seemed to be caught in a romance novel about the dark tortured hero and the heroine who would bring him to life again. It was well written and enjoyable but something was missing. Once all the pieces were set in place though, the plot didn't just speed up, it took off.

One of the things I like about Catherine Asaro's book is the way she can introduce characters who appear to be black and white unpleasant at the least and evil at the most, and then reveal more and more about them until we begin to understand them and maybe even like them. She does this with Varqelle Escar. He is Cobalt's father and the villain of The Charmed Sphere and while he is never a truly nice or likeable character, by the end of the book he is much more understandable - as is the fact that Cobalt is so desperate for his love and approval, which was a puzzle earlier in the story.

As for Cobalt himself, he is a tortured character, badly treated as a child and broken inside because of it. Mel doesn't miraculous heal him by her very presence; and I was delighted by this as it is much too easy an answer used often in straight romance novels. She sets that healing in process, but it still has a long was to go. Cobalt is still walking a fine line between light and dark at the end of the novel and while he's shifted that edge, it hasn't vanished. It is part of his character and he will always be dark and driven to some degree; he has better balance now and Mel there to remind and guide him when necessary, but there hasn't been a magical and unrealistic reforming of his essential character.

I also liked the way Asaro turned another near-cliché on its head. This is a fantasy novel and it includes an invading army and a stand against them, complete with cavalry, swords and a mage. But our characters are at the head of the invading force, not the defending one. They don't have some magically or divinely given right of conquest, nor is there a logical or funadmentally righteous reason for the invasion. The characters are doing what people do, following ambition and desire and Cobalt's reasons for this aggression is again understandable if far from perfect. What did a son with the skill and drive of a conqueror do in peace time when they didn't have organised sports where he could overwhelm his fellow men?

Yet, despite thinking of himself only as a warrior, Cobalt proves to have a real talent for making up dipomatic solutions to potentially violent problems on the spot. Yes, he'll need Mel to temper his darker side, but she isn't the cause of his brighter actions, only a catalyst to help him make better choices.

As for Mel herself, I have less to say about her. She is a well developed young woman at the beginning of the novel and remains so throughout it. She doesn't need to find herself; she's already done that through a safe, happy and secure childhood. She just needs to learn to apply who she is to the new situations she finds herself in the book. If everything had stayed peaceful and she's married her cousin as planned, she would still have had a happy and fulfilled life, although it wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic and adventurous. She is a well developed character and I'm eager to read more about her, there's just less to say about her in a review like this.

I tossed up between an 8 and a 9 for a rating for this book. In the end I decided to go with the nine as I was left with a really good feeling at the end of the book. I think Asaro's SF is more edgy and better than her fantasy, but her fantasties are also good, enjoyable reads in well developed world. I am already looking forward to the next book (especially since I saw Stephanie Law's amazing cover art.

Cover Blurb:
     In a world where males are rarely born, they've become a commodity-traded and sold like property. Jerin Whistler has come of age for marriage and his handsome features have come to the attention of the royal princesses. But such attentions can be dangerous-especially as Jerin uncovers the dark mysteries the royal family is hiding.

Going solely on the blurb, one could be forgiven for suspecting Wen Spencer's A Brother's Price to be a badly written romance. This is far from the case. In fact, while it features a bethrothal and a wedding, it is barely a romance at all. This is a tale of society and manners - tipped upside down, turned inside out and shaken firmly just for good measure.

Spencer has taken a relatively simple idea - what if, in a society just becoming industrialised, women seriously outnumbered men? What kind of society would develop? How would men be considered and treated? Would things be any better or any worse with women running everything. And while it does, I suspect purposefully, follow a number of romance clichés, each is used to make the reader think about the things we've come to take for granted in such a novel.

Her men are kept in seclusion, jealously guarded, although the hero, Jerin, has had a more liberal upbringing than some. When he rescues an injured princess, he is suddenly thrown into high society and struggles to find his way. The many characters - a necessary number when a brother might have as many as twenty or thirty sisters (to one father and a number of mothers) - are still well drawn and engage the reader's interest and sympathy. I've read books lately where the author has struggled to interest me in her hero and/or heroine as much as Spencer does with her minor characters. Jerin is lovely; a mixture of innocence, brains and courage. The royal sisters are all individuals, fiercely loyal to each other and the past tragedies in their lives have truly shaped them, rather than just being thrown out to the reader without any strength or emotion behind them.

Don't be put off by the blurb or the concept. Spencer isn't writing a specific social commentary here, but she explores her society with a deft hand, making it work in all its complexity, its positives and its negatives. Go along for the ride and enjoy.

I can't quite see how she could write a sequel, but if she ever does, it'll be on my auto-buy list.

Cover Blurb:
     Rachel Benjamin and her friends aren’t looking forward to Emma’s wedding. The groom is a rat, and nobody can understand what Emma sees in him. So when he turns up dead on the morning of the ceremony, no one in the wedding party is all that upset. Not even Emma.
     Rachel, who had the good fortune to find Richard floating facedown in the pool, is feeling as if she’s woken up in an Agatha Christie novel. It doesn’t help that everyone around her seems to have a motive for murder. So, while the cops detain Emma’s family and friends at her isolated Adirondacks compound for the weekend, Rachel, an investment banker by trade, makes like Miss Marple (minus the gray hair and sensible shoes) and does some digging of her own. Her investigation gets especially tricky when Peter Forrest, the too-good-to-be-true best man, turns out to be both her number-one love interest and her number-one suspect. And Rachel can’t help remembering the solemn pact she and her friends made back in college-a promise to rescue each other from bad relationships, using any means required. Has someone taken the pact too far?

This was an enjoyable read. I haven't really read anything classed as "chick-lit" before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. My pre-conceived ideas included lots of ultra-rich women in their late-twenties to early-thirties with high powered jobs and designer clothes, told first person with lots of sparkling wit and humour. The Pact includes most of these, but manages to be a nice, solid mystery story as well. It is more serious than I expected, and because of that, also a little heavier, but not necessarily in a bad way.

I liked all the characters and agreed with the narrator, Rachel, that none of them could possibly have been the murderer. Her mistakes are reasonable - except for the 'big misunderstanding' between her and the potential love interest where she jumped to a conclusion that I felt wasn't exactly warranted. Or at least, that the evidence was ambiguous enough that I could see that it would turn out to be a red herring and I felt Rachel was portrayed as smart enough to figure that out as well. Of course, then she wouldn't have called 911 on Peter and needed to make up for it afterwards.

I didn't pick the murderer, although all the clues were there in hindsight, and it was a well chosen conclusion. For me, not working it out actually means a good book as I'm too caught up in the story for my subconscious to be wasting its time trying to solve the mystery. These days I prefer to sit back and enjoy the ride rather than feeling a need to work everything out in advance.

I don't know if this book is typical of the genre or not, but I enjoyed it. Rachel is going to have another literary outing in December and I think I'll be going along for the ride. However, I still detest the Australian release cover and may have to buy in the next one from the US, just to have something pretty on my bookcase. I'm sad that way.

Cover Blurb:
     Dr. Alexandra Keller is Chicago’s most brilliant reconstructive surgeon.
     Michael Cyprien is New Orleans’ most reclusive millionaire - and in desperate need of Dr. Keller’s skills.
     Beneath the foundation of a mansion in the heart of the Garden District, Alexandra will perform an illegal surgery. Her patient’s disfigurement is beyond medical repair. But his body’s ability to recuperate from his wounds borders on the miraculous.
     Alexandra knows Michael Cyprien is no ordinary patient. Intrigued by how his remarkable physiology might benefit medical science, she is even more compelled by his presence - and the mystery surrounding him and his associates, a cadre of immortals who call themselves the Darkyn . . . .

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a good story and I really like the world Viehl has created. However, it took me forever to read and I'm not sure why. I had to keep going back to it, but I wasn't sucked into it and trapped there like I often am with a book I really like. I don't know if I would reread it, but I certainly want to know more about the world and will be buying the sequel. I'll see how that one goes before making any final decisions about reading or not reading more books beyond that.

Some of the darker passages are a bit unpleasant, but it is never dwelled on long enough to make the reader cringe too much. The villianess (for lack of a better term) is particularly nasty, but she is drawn in broad brush strokes rather than more detailed ones, giving both her and her actions less impact than perhaps they should have.

In fact, this is probably true of all the characters - they are more stand-ins for a role than real people the reader cares greatly about. I think this explains my ambivalence and the slow read. I like the world and want to see more of it but I'm not to fussed about the fates of the individual characters. I wasn't hanging on to each page to see how it turned out for them. If the world-building and the characterisation can both be major factors in the next book, it should be a good one.