If wishes were horses...

After a much loved preacher and anti-abortion protestor is murdered outside a women’s health clinic, the whole city of Jackson, Mississippi is up in arms and pointing the finger at Dr Stephen Nicoletti.

It’s left to Detective Darla Cavannah to solve the crime but with a partner who is a better Elvis impersonator than he is a detective, political pressure, and the church running interference things aren’t going so well for her. 

Added to that there is a killer on the loose and he has a plan. 

I wasn’t expecting to like this book as much as I did. It reminded me a little of another book set in Mississippi, A Time to Kill by John Grisham. But I think this book is better. Darla Cavannah is a great protagonist, a strong woman who has a few skeletons. A solid debut that promises to become a great series.

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Kitty is a werewolf who hosts a radio program for vampires, werewolves and the like. Sort of like Dr Phil for monsters. Her fame brings her into contact with creatures of the night that would prefer to stay that way, and religious nut-cases who thinks the only good vampire is a staked, beheaded and thrown out into the sunshine, true dead vampire.  

These books are pretty good fun. They’re over the top, occasionally a little too wordy but the good far out-weighs the bad. I think the second book is much stronger than the first and hopefully they keep getting better as I continue the series.  

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Elyssa is a rancher struggling to survive in the male dominated Wild West. When the Culpepper’s a band of outlaw’s from Texas decide her ranch will be the perfect hideout from the law she finds herself and her ranch-hands under constant attack. 

Hunter has been tracking the Culpepper’s who kidnapped and sold his children to Injuns (getting the idea yet?) from Texas.  With revenge on his mind he signs on as Elyssa’s ranch foreman. 

Autumn Lover owes more to 1950s John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart films than to any history book.  It’s entertaining enough even if it’s clichéd and a little derivative. It was a pretty good way to kill some time but it’s hard to see it winning any awards. If you want great, read Beautiful Bad Man by Ellen O’Connell…if you’re not too fussed, this is pretty good but read Beautiful Bad Man as well.

I like music and I'd like to think I'm open to all styles. I listen to everything from punk and ska, to swing and jazz. I like country and I'll even listen to techno when I'm in the mood.

But I've decided I'm not going to listen to Hip Hop and Rap anymore.  I'm disgusted with the way they depict women in their videos. I'm sick of women being treated as little more than sexual playthings.  

It isn't empowerment, it's objectification.  It isn't irony, it's porn (what idiot thought that was a good argument?).

I know there are rap and hip hop artists who buck this trend. I have much respect for Michael Frante, but I'm sad to say they really aren't making much difference. It's like throwing an ice-cube into a pot of boiling water. 

So, young men need to learn to treat women with respect, and hip hop is teaching them that women "want it".  I don't want that attitude in my home.  

A propos Goodreads's Quote of the Day for today.  (For background, see this article by the Quote Investigator).

Disclosure: I am an online friend of Leslie Fear's on both Facebook and Goodreads.  

When Lottie arrives in New Orleans she is fully expecting a few days of drinking too much and partying. But an evil spirit and a centuries old curse are hanging over her head. With the help of Xavier, the owner of a shop selling voodoo souvenirs to tourists and a French speaking ghost who visits her in her dreams, she begins to unravel the mystery. But the voodoo queen won't easily surrender what she has and the price she demands might be more than Lottie can pay.  

Totally loved this book. It's an old school ghost story that's well written and entertaining. I read a lot of books, between 175 and 200 per year. Ninety-five percent of them are electronic versions. But for a very few, I want to have a physical book on my shelf.  This is one of those books. (lol...lucky me! a signed copy is on the way)

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At 35, Honor discovers she will never be more than friends with benefits for the man she secretly loved since school. Then a matter of weeks after laughing off her suggestion they marry, he gets engaged to her closest friend.  

Humiliated and desperate to save face she agrees to marry Tom who desperately needs a green card or he will be sent back to England and away from the troubled teenager he considers his son.  

As you would expect, there are misunderstandings and missteps at every step of the way as they both question the others feelings. 

I’m not a big fan of the “marriage of convenience” trope. Honestly it usually drives me to distraction, but The Perfect Match had enough good stuff going on that I’m happy to set aside my misgivings aside and give this one four stars.

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Colleen, or whatever her name was, reads a book and becomes some sort of magicial being. But not a witch, don't mention that word! She's a non-witch magical being.  She gets enrolled into magical college and does your usual college stuff...goes to church and such.  

Meets three hot guys and one of them takes her to church. Church church church church church.  

Yeah, I've had enough....which is surprising because absolutely nothing happened in this book. I'd rather watch Forrest Gump in German than ever think about this book again.  

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Tessa left Apple Valley many years ago rather than watch the man she loved marry her sister. When her sister dies suddenly, Tessa finds herself the guardian of Alex, a 10 year old with autism and the owner of a dilapidated Victorian she doesn’t want. Her plan is to clean up the house and sell it before taking Alex to live with her on the East Coast where she has made a life. 

But her Aunt is throwing up road blocks every step of the way, and when Cade, the man she once loved starts showing up she finds herself struggling to keep it together. 

The House on Main Street is pretty damned special. It’s everything I want from a Christmas book, but it’s a whole lot more. Well written, interesting characters and story. It’s the first book by Shirlee McCoy I’ve read but it won’t be the last.

Many thanks to Kensington and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

DNF ... abandoned at 40%...

I love Faith Hunter's Skinwalker series.  At book six it's getting a little tired but for those first three or four books it really grabbed my attention and I tore through them. This book doesn't live up to the expectations created by the Jane Yellowrock books.  

It's monotonous, the characters are remote and when I abandoned the book at 40% I still had no idea where the story was going.  

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Neva has had the werewolf virus forced on her. After escaping from her sire she is determined to kill herself before the first moon transforms her and turns her into a killer. 

When Travis sees her jump from a cliff he steps in and saves her life.  But her sire has sent the full pack after Neva and is determined to get her back dead or alive.  

The synopsis for this book promised great things.  The cover supported that.  The first few chapters were promising. But for some reason this book wasn’t quite able to live up to my expectations. It was good without being great.  Entertaining but not exciting. Not a bad effort but a long way from what I was hoping for.

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So...she’s divorced and broke. She’s left her swanky California lifestyle behind and landed in Hawaii where she now manages her possibly senile father’s beach side bar. Then a neighbor gets gruesomely murdered and she finds herself butting heads with a sexy cop....

Damn. There's no need to review this. It’s every cozy mystery you’ve ever read. Not bad for what it is but honestly the toughest choice is do I use a cookie cutter picture or a painting by numbers picture.

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As a child Elizabeth was picked on by Nico. Through their teenage years there was no let up but she was able to endure it with the help of her one true love, Garrett.  Then Garrett died and Elizabeth was left alone.  

Ten years later and Elizabeth, now a doctor avoids relationships. Nobody can replace Garrett. Then Nico walks into her hospital with Angelica a young child with a rare disease. With Elizabeth treating Angelica’s condition, she can’t avoid Nico, but despite their attraction the shadow of the past threatens any hope they have for happiness.

Friends Without Benefits is witty, occasionally funny, much longer than the books I usually read and great fun. It’s a cute and quirky love story that is both smart and easy to read.

Many thanks to Penny Reid for providing me with this ARC

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Rachel is a "runner". She works for a law enforcement body that hunts down supernatural beings that break the law. On the outer with her superiors she decides to quit and strike out on her own. They are glad to see her back, but when she takes Ivy, a vampire and Jenks, a pixie with her they're not inclined to forgive her. 

I was enjoying this book and it was headed towards a pretty good rating until at around 75% it went all Morganville Vampires angsty.  In the end what was a good start lost most of its shine and only succeeded in giving me a headache. 

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Lady Claire is finally getting the recognition she deserves working as an assistant to frustrated engineer Andrew Malvern. But his partner Lord James Selwyn wants her as his bride and has formed an alliance with her mother to get her down the aisle. If he succeeds her dreams of university will evaporate. 

Her Own Devices is the second book in the Magnificent Devices series. I have much love for these books but they are very short and I think the first two books should be combined into one. Together they would be one very good 5 Star Steam Punk adventure. Separate, I can’t go that far but they’re still very good.