Monstrous Beauty / Elizabeth Fama

4 out of 5 stars

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

Once again, a good grounding in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is an excellent idea for getting the most out of this tale. But I’m sure you can enjoy it even if you’ve never encountered the fairy tale.

In this one, the mermaid gets both her legs and her man, but her life becomes entwined with the Plymouth Colony population in ways that she would never have dreamed. It falls to Hester Goodwin, a young woman working as a Plymouth reenactor at a historic site, to figure out the various aspects of the story and set things straight. Hopefully, she will straighten out her own life during the process.

I love a story that involves genealogical research, so that predisposed me to like this one. I also enjoyed the switching between time periods, with Ezra and Sarah/Syrenka alternating with Hester. Sometimes that kind of alternation is confusing, but I felt this was well done. May I also say that I hope it is not nearly as easy to steal a Special Collections book as it is depicted in this tale.

Once again, I will say that if you are looking for a traditional HEA ending, this may not be the book for you. Quite in keeping with Andersen, really. The ending is definitely hopeful, so you can add your own imaginary HEA should you choose to--it is strongly hinted at.

Part of my 2019 MerMay project.

Fear the Drowning Deep / Sarah Glenn Marsh

3.75 stars out of 5

Witch’s apprentice Bridey Corkill has hated the ocean ever since she watched her granddad dive in and drown with a smile on his face. So when a dead girl rolls in with the tide in the summer of 1913, sixteen-year-old Bridey suspects that whatever compelled her granddad to leap into the sea has made its return to the Isle of Man.

Soon, villagers are vanishing in the night, but no one shares Bridey’s suspicions about the sea. No one but the island’s witch, who isn’t as frightening as she first appears, and the handsome dark-haired lad Bridey rescues from a grim and watery fate. The cause of the deep gashes in Fynn’s stomach and his lost memories are, like the recent disappearances, a mystery well-guarded by the sea. In exchange for saving his life, Fynn teaches Bridey to master her fear of the water — stealing her heart in the process.

Now, Bridey must work with the Isle’s eccentric witch and the boy she isn’t sure she can trust — because if she can’t uncover the truth about the ancient evil in the water, everyone she loves will walk into the sea, never to return.

Lots of details in this YA novel are just my thing--a young woman apprenticed to a “witch,” mysterious goings-on, an unusual young man washed up from the sea, plus a wonderful setting, the Isle of Man.

Of course, the witch is an odd elderly woman, despised by the town, but in reality a good friend for young Bridey. And Bridey is different from her neighbours too, so its a lesson about being different successfully.

It’s also about choosing for the future--at the book’s beginning, Bridey wants nothing more than to get as far away from the sea as she possibly can. It is a major act of bravery that takes her to the shore to rescue the young man whom she christens Finn. Will she choose her village or the world? Will she choose Finn over the young man who has been her friend since childhood? Can she figure out what is luring away & killing the people of the village?

This is not a traditional HEA ending, so if you require that, put this book back on the shelf. As it happens, I love an ambiguous ending, so this novel suited me down to the ground. Since I can’t swim and dread deep water, I also had that link with Bridey--I could really identify with her fears.

No merpeople in this one, but since Finn is a mysterious man from the sea, I am still including it as part of my 2019 MerMay project.

A Dangerous Collaboration / Deanna Raybourn

4.25 stars out of 5

Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell is whisked off to a remote island off the tip of Cornwall when her natural historian colleague Stoker's brother calls in a favor. On the pretext of wanting a companion to accompany him to Lord Malcolm Romilly's house party, Tiberius persuades Veronica to pose as his fiancée—much to Stoker's chagrin. But upon arriving, it becomes clear that the party is not as innocent as it had seemed. Every invited guest has a connection to Romilly's wife, Rosamund, who disappeared on her wedding day three years ago, and a dramatic dinner proves she is very much on her husband's mind.

As spectral figures, ghostly music, and mysterious threats begin to plague the partygoers, Veronica enlists Stoker's help to discover the host's true motivations. And as they investigate, it becomes clear that there are numerous mysteries surrounding the Romilly estate, and every person present has a motive to kill Rosamund...

Oh, Veronica Speedwell, I am always so glad to get to spend time with you. And Revelstoke Templeton-Vane (Stoker) as well. Rarely are the two of them apart, until this book, where it looks like Tiberius Templeton-Vane may lure Veronica away from Stoker’s side. Or that Veronica and Stoker may bugger up their semi-comfortable relationship.

This is Deanna Raybourn channeling Victoria Holt’s Lord of the Far Island. Secret passages, boats that have holes packed with sugar (so you’ll be out on the sea when the sugar dissolves), dangerous currents (both on the ocean and at the tea table), and a wise old woman in the village to deliver ambiguous messages.

It was delightful, as Stoker manages to give Veronica a dose of her own medicine, drawing back from their attraction just as she is beginning to acknowledge it more fully. I am so looking forward to the next book, which quite simply cannot be published fast enough.

It is safe to say that I will read this series for as long as Ms. Raybourn is willing to produce them.

Sea Witch / Sarah Henning

4 out of 5 stars

Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.

Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch. 

A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, though the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn’t so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes—and hearts—of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.

But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend’s humanity, along with her prince’s heart—harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain.

Make sure you have familiarized yourself with Hans Christian Andersen’s version of The Little Mermaid before you read Sea Witch. This is a prequel, telling the story of how the Sea Witch came to exist.

She’s Evie, not Ursula, in this version and she’s far more complex than a Disney villain. We meet her as a young woman, learning her place in the world and trying to cover up her magical leanings in a society where it isn’t welcome. Evie’s neighbours have noticed her close friendship with their Crown Prince Nicholas--there is both jealousy and a desire to put her in her (much lower) place. Like any good fairy story, there are complex issues at play.

It is also a story about personal relationships--how much do we actually know about the people around us, those whom we consider to be friends? If they aren’t true friends, how much damage can they do to us? How much do we manipulate and allow others to manipulate us?

A very well written embroidery on the original Andersen tale. Read as part of my 2019 MerMay project.

Into the Drowning Deep / Mira Grant

4 out of 5 stars

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy.

Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price. 

I’ve rated this book highly for a horror novel--they’re not usually my jam. But I know that Mira Grant is a pseudonym for one of my favourite authors, Seanan McGuire, and I also knew going in that it featured mermaids. I hadn’t realized quite how loomingly horrific it would be, nor how much blood & gore would be splashed about. However, the messiness of the action was justified by the nature of the mermaids and, although I had to read during daylight hours only, I enjoyed the mysterious creatures and their almost-victims.

I enjoyed the scientific nature of this sea excursion--plenty of scientists who didn’t believe in the existence of mermaids, but were willing to go along to pursue their own research. Everyone with their own scientific or political axe to grind, trying to use the expedition to their advantage. Somehow, everyone manages to overlook the fact that the first ship sent was discovered, empty of humans, but with horrific video footage. Of course, the video is deemed to be fiction or a hoax, and even those who believe what they saw are somehow talked into coming along on this venture.

I thought that the name of the deep sea rover, The Minnow, was fabulous--evoking Gilligan’s Island, with the lost ship, being stranded, and having to improvise. The notion that a 3 hour tour would turn into a life-changing event.

These mermaids are very different from those in McGuire’s October Daye series, where they are a branch of the Fae. Here they are terrifying predators, spreading fear and death throughout the ship.

Read as part of my 2019 MerMay project.

Blood Curse / Kat Flannery

2.5 stars out of 5

Four years after the Blood Curse, Pril of the Peddlers vows to protect her child against the evil men who hunt her. With her clan unaware of the branded girl among them, Pril has to keep the identity of her daughter a secret. When her child is kidnapped, she is forced to ask Merchant runner, Kade Walker, for his help. 
Kade Walker needs to find the gypsy child. Blackmailed and pushed beyond his own moral code, he is determined to do whatever it takes. When he comes across the Peddler clan, he is sure the girl is there, however all hope is lost when the gypsies capture him. Time is running out-until Pril makes him an offer he cannot refuse. 
Amidst greed, lust, revenge and love, Pril will need to trust Kade. But as the evil nears and doubt creeps in, will she discover that the enemy has been standing next to her all along?

I chose this book because the author is coming to a conference that I’m attending in August. I like to have some idea what the keynote authors have to offer, so that I know which panels and discussions that I want to attend.

I had to order this book on interlibrary loan--my public library doesn’t have anything by this author. On the basis of this book, I’d have to say that they’ve made the right decision. Not that the ideas were bad, they weren’t. But the expression of them wasn’t what I would expect. In fact, I was disappointed.

The first pages were confusing, as the action went too fast for the exposition. It all figured itself out in subsequent pages, but it was an inauspicious beginning. Add to that some clumsy sentence structures, where I wasn't sure which pronoun referred to which person, and some questionable word choices--I’m sure in one sentence the author meant “condescension” but instead “condensation” was printed. Also, on several occasions, the men are described as having “meaty fists.” Now, I know what that means, but I think there are many words that would describe large, powerful hands better than that. It was (thankfully) not a long book, but it made the entire story feel rushed, which may be why so many plot points were telegraphed very early in the narrative, leaving little for the reader to discover or be surprised by.

All in all, I’m glad that I read the book--I now know the author’s level of skill and it took me only a partial evening to finish the volume. I’m truly sorry that I didn’t enjoy the novel more, but I will see what the author has to say in her keynote address, but I imagine that I’ll be spending my conference time listening to others.

Against a Darkening Sky / Lauren B. Davis

3.5 stars out of 5

Wilona, the lone survivor of a plague that has wiped out her people, makes her way across the moors to a new life in the village of Ad Gefrin, where she is apprenticed to Touilt, a revered healer and seeress. She blossoms under Touilt's tutelage and will one day take her place, but as an outsider, she is viewed with suspicion by all except Margawn, a warrior in the lord's hall. When the king proclaims a conversion to the new Christian religion, Ad Gefrin becomes a dangerous place for Wilona and Touilt. Their very lives are at risk as the villagers embrace the new faith and turn against the old ways, even as Wilona's relationship with Margawn grows. Wilona's fate becomes intertwined with that of Egan, a monk sent to Ad Gefrin as part of the Christian mission; both will see their faith and their loyalties tested.

Torn between her deepest beliefs and a desire to belong in a confusing, changing world, Wilona must battle for survival, dignity and love against overwhelming odds. Seamlessly combining timeless choices and struggles and rich, nuanced historical detail that brings pagan Britain to life, Against a Darkening Sky is an exquisitely rendered work of fiction from one of Canada's most acclaimed and celebrated novelists.

For me, this was about a 3.5 star reading experience, despite the fact that it has so many things that I really enjoy. First, its setting—at the point where country religions are being replaced by Christianity in Britain. Second, I loved that Wilona was a healer, as I enjoy that kind of character. And thirdly, Lauren B. Davis is an excellent writer.

Back in 2013, I read Nicola Griffith’s excellent book Hild, set in the same time frame. It was a mention that Hild appears in Davis’ book, that encouraged me to pick it up. Unfortunately, Hild makes only one cameo in this book as a child and we don’t see her again.

The ending is inevitable, but I still found it disappointing. I guess I am a pagan at heart and I’m always disappointed when Christianity triumphs. If you like this book, I would definitely recommend Hild, as well as Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon and Mary Stewart’s Arthurian Saga, beginning with The Crystal Cave.

The Falconer / Elizabeth May

4 out of 5 stars

One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale

She's a stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.

She's a liar.
But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.

She's a murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.

She's a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.

I read this book in one evening and completely enjoyed myself, hence the 4 star rating. It was really quite predictable—aristocratic girl in a steampunk Victorian timeline who is vowed to avenge the death of her mother. At a swanky event of some kind, a banshee has killed Aileana’s mother and left Aileana drenched in blood. Since then, she has acquired a pixie sidekick (Derrick) and a Fairy mentor and fight instructor (Kiaran).

Very reminiscent of Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series or Sarah J. Maas’ Court of Thorns and Roses series. I blundered into this volume, not realizing that it is first of a trilogy—if you abhor cliff-hanger endings, you either want to skip this book or have book two queued up and ready to go.

There is a very obvious paranormal romance element to this novel, telegraphed from extremely early in the book. In this respect, both Moning and Maas were better at the build up to the relationship, letting their heroines struggle with the concept longer and creating better tension in the stories. May throws in an old flame of Aileana’s—she may be a Falconer (a hunter of the Fae), but Gavin is a Seer. Aileana needs a magic flower in order to see the Fae, so she and Gavin are a natural team. This sets up a quasi-love triangle between Aileana, Gavin, and Kiaran.

The end of this first installment may have been a cliff-hanger, but it’s a very effective one. It left me wishing I had the second book already in my hands to see what is meant by those last couple of pages! I was relieved to find out that my public library has both of the remaining books, so I will eventually get to discover the outcome.

Use of Scots dialect was sparing, just enough to remind the reader of where the action takes place, a feature which I appreciated. Also the dust jacket art is gorgeous. Recommended for fans of Fae paranormal romance fiction.

The Little Mermaid / Metaphrog

4 out of 5 stars

The Little Mermaid lives deep under the ocean and longs to see the world above. When at last she is allowed to rise to the surface at age fifteen, she falls in love with a young prince. In order to become a human and to be with him, she makes a dangerous pact with the Sea Witch.

This is the ultimate Mermaid tale—the one that got the ball rolling, so to speak. Having just re-read a bunch of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, this story was very fresh in my mind. I headed into this graphic novel unsure of which version I was getting, HCA’s or Disney’s. I am happy to report that it was very true to the Andersen version.

The artwork was beautiful and I would be happy to recommend it to all ages of reader. I remember reading a comic book version of this tale as a child and being very scared by the Sea Witch. In this version, she is not nearly so scary in my opinion, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Bad people don’t necessarily look bad and that’s a valuable lesson to learn.

I was struck by the fact that the Little Mermaid is only 15 years old, and that’s in a species that lives to be 300. She is so young to be making these life changing decisions! I mean, who among us is married to the person we were in love with at 15? Not very many!

Read for my 2019 MerMay Project, which is getting an early start because I’ll be on vacation for half of the month of May.

Excellent Women / Barbara Pym

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those "excellent women," the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors--anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door--the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

I felt that I was now old enough to become fussy and spinsterish if I wanted to.

Amen, sister Mildred! I felt so much kinship to this single woman, obviously competent and to whom others turn when they want something done and don’t want to do it themselves. At a tourist site, someone turns to Mildred to ask directions and says, “I hope you didn’t mind me asking, but you looked as if you would know the way.” I’ve had the same thing happen to me frequently. Apparently I look like I know what I’m doing, despite the fact that I’m often wondering about my own competence! (One of my coworkers once told me that he figured the world was split into patients and nurses and that I would be a head-nurse. I’m still wondering if this was a compliment or an insult.)

It’s no secret that there are tasks that tend to get heaped on single women. It is assumed that because you don’t have a husband or children, you have oodles of spare time in which to do things for others. So you can be the one to do the emotional labour of keeping up friendships or keeping in touch with family. This can work for you or against you. You can use it to your advantage as Mildred does:

”I began piling cups and saucers on to a tray. I suppose it was cowardly of me, but I felt that I wanted to be alone, and what better place to choose than the sink, where neither of the men would follow me?”

She can find solitude at the kitchen sink because, as she told us earlier, “I had observed that men did not usually do things unless they liked doing them.” Hence the church-going men who hang around the jumble sales and drink tea, but, like the drones they are, do very little else.

It has always surprised me how much society pushes us toward romantic relationships. Like Mildred, I’m just fine with my single status—I can certainly see the married women around me struggling with challenges that I don’t have to face. It may be a liability someday when I need an advocate when I’m in assisted living, for example, but having a spouse or children doesn’t guarantee that they will show up to do this task. I had to laugh when one relative spent ages agonizing to me about whether to get divorced and then turned around and worried about whether I would get married!

I am just fine being numbered among the excellent women.

The Future is Written / Jonas Saul

2 out of 5 stars

When Sarah Roberts blacks out, she wakes to find prophetic notes mysteriously
written by her own hand. After receiving a message that someone is about to
be kidnapped with instructions on how to stop it, Sarah’s convinced it won’t be hard
to do. She is wrong.

The kidnappers take Sarah instead. She’s thwarted them in the past, and they
want to know how she keeps showing up where she has no business being.

Sarah needs help from the police, but they’re hunting her for a different reason.
They found her notebook riddled with prophetic messages, linking her to crimes and
unsolved cases. Is she a vigilante keeping score? Or on a citywide crime spree?

Armed with a note that simply states, save yourself, Sarah struggles to stay alive
using her wit and street smarts.

First things first: this was really outside my wheelhouse. Not my thing at all. However, the premise was an interesting one, something with potential. This author will be coming to a conference that I’m attending in August and I try to read something by each key note speaker before the conference so I will know who I want to hear more from. I had to order this book by interlibrary loan—my local library had nothing by this author. It turns out that this book was actually a collection of three (as I discovered at the end) though I had guessed that as I was reading.

Thrillers are really not my cuppa tea. I had a similar experience with another author at the conference last year—he was a lovely man, I just couldn’t enjoy his books. Which is fine. There’s a lid for every pot, and these type of books just aren’t my “lid.” I had to laugh, though, when I realized that the bad guys in both this and one of the books I read last year threatened their male associates with castration if they failed. Seriously, is this a thing?

I have come to the conclusion that thriller readers are in it for the plot and only the plot. The characters tend to be cardboard stereotypes and the action is non-stop, with no chances to slow down and consider implications or underlying themes. The paranormal aspects of this book were what made it tolerable for me—Sarah (the main character) is an automatic writer who receives messages from the “Other Side.” Sometimes oddly specific—be under this bridge at this time on this day. Bring a hammer. There’s enough ambiguity to make it challenging.

I realized as I read the afterword that I’ll be interested to hear this author speak at least once at the conference. He described the vivid dreams that he had of his deceased brother that inspired the novel. I’ve experienced similar things and could appreciate what he has done with his ideas.

Magpie Murders / Anthony Horowitz

3.5 stars out of 5

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Probably about 3.5 stars. I must confess I picked it up because it had a bird in the title and I’m a bird nerd. One small complaint: the bird featured on the dust jacket of the edition that I read was not a magpie.

A very clever mystery within a mystery. Solved by an editor. Obviously the author is a smart guy, writing something that is very much an homage to Agatha Christie inside his more literary novel. And I think that was very much the point--that divisions between “literature” and “genre fiction” are artificial and limiting. Good writing is good writing, no matter the genre. But I’ve heard this argument at writers’ conferences for years--genre is just a spot to shelve things in the bookstores.

I didn’t get as wrapped up in this novel as I expected. It probably has more to do with me than the novel, really, as I’ve got a lot going on right now. Still it was a good read and I wouldn’t discourage any interested parties from picking it up.

The Pisces / Melissa Broder

3 out of 5 stars

Lucy has been writing her dissertation about Sappho for thirteen years when she and Jamie break up. After she hits rock bottom in Phoenix, her Los Angeles-based sister insists Lucy housesit for the summer—her only tasks caring for a beloved diabetic dog and trying to learn to care for herself. Annika’s home is a gorgeous glass cube atop Venice Beach, but Lucy can find no peace from her misery and anxiety—not in her love addiction group therapy meetings, not in frequent Tinder meetups, not in Dominic the foxhound’s easy affection, not in ruminating on the ancient Greeks. Yet everything changes when Lucy becomes entranced by an eerily attractive swimmer one night while sitting alone on the beach rocks.

Whip-smart, neurotically funny, sexy, and above all, fearless, The Pisces is built on a premise both sirenic and incredibly real—what happens when you think love will save you but are afraid it might also kill you. 

So, I will be away for half of May, and I’m getting an early start on my MerMay project. This book qualified, as the main character is romanced by a merman.

I went into this book expecting a romance--don’t. It has to do with the importance our society gives to romance for women. How we are found to be odd, crazy, or strange if we aren’t focused on a relationship with a man. How we are to be considered defective without a partner.

Lucy has broken up with her boyfriend almost by accident and is plunged into depression and bizarre behaviour. Her sister offers her a house-sitting gig to get away and figure things out. She can stay in the sister’s house and take care of the sister’s dog as long as she goes to therapy. For a while, she finds she can love the dog and forget about men.

Lucy finds it difficult to take the group therapy seriously--all the women seem so damaged that she really doesn’t want to identify with them. However, she gradually begins to see the similarities and to see the women as more than their oddities. Meanwhile, she pursues liasons with men on Tinder, believing the superstition that her boyfriend will come back to her if she finds someone else. And she takes to sitting by the ocean at night, where she makes friends with a swimmer. Only of course he’s a merman.

It seems like Broder made all the characters pretty unlikeable, at least to me. But I did appreciate her frank assessment of the craziness that women are sometimes driven to in their pursuit of an unreasonable cultural dictum. And I also appreciated that she didn’t make Theo, the merman, into some kind of real romantic leading man. This isn’t the Little Mermaid in reverse. At least not the Disney version--it may bear more resemblance to the original Hans Christian Anderson tale, in the lack of a happy, romantic ending.

That Ain't Witchcraft / Seanan McGuire

4 out of 5 stars

Antimony Price has never done well without a support system. As the youngest of her generation, she has always been able to depend on her parents, siblings, and cousins to help her out when she's in a pinch--until now. After fleeing from the Covenant of St. George, she's found herself in debt to the crossroads and running for her life. No family. No mice. No way out.

Lucky for her, she's always been resourceful, and she's been gathering allies as she travels: Sam, fūri trapeze artist turned boyfriend; Cylia, jink roller derby captain and designated driver; Fern, sylph friend, confidant, and maker of breakfasts; even Mary, ghost babysitter to the Price family. Annie's actually starting to feel like they might be able to figure things out--which is probably why things start going wrong again.

New Gravesend, Maine is a nice place to raise a family...or make a binding contract with the crossroads. For James Smith, whose best friend disappeared when she tried to do precisely that, it's also an excellent place to plot revenge. Now the crossroads want him dead and they want Annie to do the dirty deed. She owes them, after all.

And that's before Leonard Cunningham, aka, "the next leader of the Covenant," shows up...

It's going to take everything Annie has and a little bit more to get out of this one. If she succeeds, she gets to go home. If she fails, she becomes one more cautionary tale about the dangers of bargaining with the crossroads.

But no pressure.

Let me just warn you up front, that I am an InCryptid fan and cannot be expected to be too critical of my beloved series. I enjoy the Price family, in their weirdness and their oddly chosen purpose, to protect the cryptid species in their vicinity. I love the wide selection of creatures than McGuire has dreamed up for them to interact with and run interference for. I enjoy their opposition to and reluctant engagement with the Covenant of St. George. The Prices fight against prejudice in all of its forms.

I must confess that I miss the Aeslin mice. (Hail, cake & cheese for all!!) But I have a feeling that Annie will be able to rejoin the family fold soon and be reunited with her rodent worshippers. This is a consummation devoutly to be wished. In fine family style, Annie will be returning with a new adoptive family member and a potential spouse. Parr for the course among these crytozoological ninjas.

As long as Ms. MaGuire chooses to write these adventures, I will continue to read them. They are a wonderful little hit of fun, frolicking among the gorgons and bogeymen and traveling the ghost roads with likeable characters.

Now that the Covenant is fully aware of the Prices' existence in North America, the plot will no doubt thicken. I can hardly wait for the next story!

A Shimmer of Hummingbirds / Steve Burrows

4 out of 5 stars

Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune is hoping an overseas birding trip might hold some answers in his fugitive brother’s manslaughter case. But there are people on the tour who seem keen to keep their secrets, and the rainforest can be a dangerous place for those who ask too many questions. 

Back in the U.K., in Jejeune’s absence, Marvin Laraby, his former boss and longtime nemesis has been brought in to investigate the murder of an accountant. He is proving so effective that Superintendent Colleen Shepherd is considering making his replacement of Jejeune a permanent arrangement. 

With the manslaughter case poised to claim another victim, Jejeune learns that an accident back home involving his girlfriend, Lindy Hey, is much more than it seems. Lindy is in imminent danger. And only Jejeune can help her. But to do so, he must sacrifice his working relationship with Shepherd, opening the door for Laraby’s appointment as Saltmarsh’s new DCI. 

When Jejeune discovers the truth about Laraby’s current case, he is faced with a dilemma. He can speak up, knowing it will cost him his job on the north Norfolk coast he loves. Or he can stay silent, and let a killer escape justice. 

As he weighs his alternatives, Domenic Jejeune begins to realize that, sometimes, the wrong choice is the only choice you have.

The best part of these multi-volume mystery series? One mystery is solved during the course of the book, but the overarching storyline develops more slowly. Burrows doesn’t rush things and he assumes that the reader will be able to fill in the blanks without too much coaching. He gives enough details so that if the reader, like me, has been away from the main characters for a while we can fit them into their places quite easily. But he doesn’t do like some of the cozy mystery authors, who repeat their characters’ life details far too often and in too much detail.

Being a birder myself, I could see the lure of Columbia as a destination, a good cover for what we know Domenic is really up to. As in real life, many other people can also see through his smoke screen--and unlike me, they don’t understand the lure of the bird.

Burrows leaves us with a tiny bit of a cliff hanger in this volume….I’ll be headed on to the next installment soon.

My Sister, the Serial Killer / Oyinkan Braithwaite

3 out of 5 stars

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other... 

What an easy little book to swoop through, an ignore so many of the things about women’s lives that the author explores! I was eagerly slurping down the story, when I had to take a little break. And that little break got me thinking and suddenly the book was more than the story.

Korede and Ayoola are two halves of the same coin. Korede claims that she is ugly and that Ayoola is beautiful. (We have only her word for this and I just don’t find her to be the most reliable narrator). They get treated differently because of this difference--Korede learns the “homely woman” lessons. You must learn to cook and to keep house well because this is what you will be judged on. Ayoola get a pass on those skills. Korede also holds a responsible job outside the home, something that Ayoola also gets a pass on. And yet, Korede is so controlled, so obsessively clean and tidy--she needs Ayoola to clean up after.

The two sisters are involved in a complicated dance, stemming from their abusive father. Ayoola is the one who creates messes and Korede cleans them up. How many siblings have this dynamic, although not to this extreme. As an eldest sibling, how many times have I been tempted to meddle in my sisters’ lives when I haven’t been asked to? How many times have I bitten my tongue and listened, trying not to judge or offer unsolicited advice?

Plus, when you get a peek into a culture that’s not your own, how easy it is to see all the patriarchal expectations that shape female lives. The whole idea that being married and producing children is the main purpose of a woman’s life, that she should be willing to endure being beaten and abused to fulfill this purpose. No wonder Ayoola kills the men in her life--she’s just behaving like a man. Korede is trying to herd her back towards female behaviour norms, but ends up helping her because she also knows what it’s like to be shoved into the uncomfortable straight jacket of societal expectations.

It’s a wonder that so many of us choose to be Korede and not Ayoola.

The Queens of Innis Lear / Tessa Gratton

5 out of 5 stars

A kingdom at risk, a crown divided, a family drenched in blood.

The erratic decisions of a prophecy-obsessed king have drained Innis Lear of its wild magic, leaving behind a trail of barren crops and despondent subjects. Enemy nations circle the once-bountiful isle, sensing its growing vulnerability, hungry to control the ideal port for all trade routes.

The king's three daughters—battle-hungry Gaela, master manipulator Reagan, and restrained, starblessed Elia—know the realm's only chance of resurrection is to crown a new sovereign, proving a strong hand can resurrect magic and defend itself. But their father will not choose an heir until the longest night of the year, when prophecies align and a poison ritual can be enacted.

Refusing to leave their future in the hands of blind faith, the daughters of Innis Lear prepare for war—but regardless of who wins the crown, the shores of Innis will weep the blood of a house divided.

This book may not be everyone’s cuppa tea, but it ticked all of my favourite boxes. Dark fantasy, looming disaster, an animate natural world, intoxicating magic, and powerful women paired with emotionally strong men. Re-telling a fabulous tale—King Lear.

It was like bitter dark chocolate, black velvet with gorgeous gold embroidery, or standing by a fire in the winter time, when only one side of you can be warm at a time. The opposites: star magic and earth magic, dark and light, poison vs. nourishment. I loved the language of the trees and the idea that the island could speak to those who rule it legitimately.

Don’t go into expecting things to work out exactly as Shakespeare wrote it—Gratton has placed her own wonderful spin on the events, making things work out HER way. In fact, in the acknowledgements she states how much she hated King Lear. So she has rewritten it the way she wanted events to go.

Both the original and this version show Lear refusing to take responsibility for his kingdom and being brought down by fate for that shirking. In the original, he wants all the privileges of kingship without the responsibilities. In Gratton’s version, he wants all the privileges of fatherhood without the parenting. Neither of these things work.

I wish I had reviewed the events of Shakespeare’s play before I plunged into this novel. I didn’t recognize Ban immediately as the equivalent of Edmund. I also thought that it was inspired to give Lear’s Fool a daughter and make her an attendant to Elia, the youngest daughter.

My first 5 star book of 2019. Well worth the long wait for it at the public library.

Dead Ever After / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

Sookie Stackhouse finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back at Merlotte’s. After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed. But her relationship with Eric Northman is not so clearcut. He and his vampires are keeping their distance…and a cold silence. And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated.

Then a shocking murder rocks Bon Temps, and Sookie is arrested for the crime.

But the evidence against Sookie is weak, and she makes bail. Investigating the killing, she’ll learn that what passes for truth in Bon Temps is only a convenient lie. What passes for justice is more spilled blood. And what passes for love is never enough...

2019 Re-Read

I have been heard to say (not seriously, but when having a hissy fit) that when a woman is done with a man, he should die. That would be how he knew that the relationship was over. Now, may I also say that I’ve never enforced this idea of mine, it was temporary insanity after the end of a particularly frustrating pseudo-relationship. But it would seem that Sookie agrees with me:

“In books, the hero was gone after the big blowup. He didn’t stick around in the vicinity doing mysterious shit, sending messages to the heroine by a third party. He hauled his ass into oblivion. And that was the way things should be, as far as I was concerned. Life should imitate romance literature far more often.”

I anticipated this ending practically from the first book. It’s not how I would have ended the series, but I was just the reader, not the writer. I’m proclaiming my undying love for Bill! But that’s just me. When I read this series the first time, I read the last three books in a frantic binge. As a result, I didn’t remember a lot of details, so it was pleasant to read a little slower this time around and soak in the final moments of a pleasurable series. I have absolutely no doubt that I will read this series again at some point, but now I hope to get on with other books, due at the library in a few days.

Bill forever, y'all.

Deadlocked / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on that there are things she'd rather not know. An now that she's an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she'd rather not see--like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.

There's a thing or two she'd like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet--Felipe de Castro, the vampire king of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It's the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric's front yard--especially the body of the woman whose blood he just drank.

Now it's up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl's fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who's set out to make Sookie's world come crashing down.

2019 Re-Read

Sookie is trying to wish away some aspects of her life and makes the mistake of asking Bill about his favourite fantasy:

“My favorite fantasy? You come down into my daytime resting place stark naked," he said, and I could see the gleam of his teeth as he smiled. "Oh, wait," Bill said. "That's already happened.”
“And that's your fantasy? That I come into your house naked and have sex with you?"
"After that, you tell me that you have sent Eric on his way, that you want to be mine forever, and that to share my life you will permit me to make you a vampire like me."
The silence now was thick, and the fun had drained out of the fantasy.
Then Bill added, "You know what I'd say when you told me this? I'd tell you I would never do such a thing. Because I love you.”

This is where Bill proves to me that he understands Sookie perfectly. He knows that she’s a creature of the sun and would never be happy in the darkness of the undead world. And that he still loves her.

It’s Sookie’s birthday, and she receives a delegation of the undead when darkness falls:

“We came to wish you a happy day,” Eric said. “And I suppose, as usual, Bill will want to express his undying love that surpasses my love, as he’ll tell you—and Pam will want to say something sarcastic and nearly painful, while reminding you that she loves you, too.”
Bill and Pam looked decidedly miffed at Eric’s preemptive strike, but I wasn’t going to let anything dim my mood.
“And what about you, Eric?” I asked on counterattack. “Are you going to tell me that you love me just as much as Bill, but in a practical way, while finding some way to subtly threaten me and simultaneously remind me that you may be leaving with Freyda?”

Once again, Pam is perfect: “Sookie, I brought you something too. I never thought I’d want to spend time with a human, but you’re more tolerable than most.”

There’s also a showdown with Freyda, the Queen who is courting Eric. She visits Sookie to size up her competition. Bubba is perfect as her guide—when she asks what people see in Ms. Stackhouse, the normally addled Bubba speaks right up, telling Freyda that Sookie is kind. And that’s it in a nutshell. She’s kind to everyone who allows it—even when they don’t really deserve it. Forget being a Christian, Sookie, you’re working on being a good Buddhist.

Almost there—I will be free of this re-reading trap with one more book!

Dead Reckoning / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows...

2019 Re-Read

You can get whiplash trying to keep up with Sookie Stackhouse’s life—one day you’re planning a vampire assassination, the next it’s a mundane baby shower. One evening you hand out sharpened stakes, the next cake and napkins.

This is the volume of the series where Sookie realizes how much her life has changed—how much she has changed. For several books now, Sookie has noted that she’s a “bad Christian.” Now she knows where her telepathic talent comes from (an indiscretion of her grandmother’s) and her world has expanded to include all sorts of supernatural creatures. She has left behind her “nice girl next door” persona and is becoming a woman to be conjured with.

It’s inevitable that this will change her relationship with Eric, who is used to being the vampire in charge. He’s getting surly and pouty, not liking this change in his ‘wife.’ She’s standing up for herself and for others, something that controlling spouses find disconcerting.

I amazed, actually, at how many human relationship issues that Harris manages to tackle through this urban fantasy soap-opera. As Sookie learns more about herself and managing her feelings & expectations, we all get to review these life lessons through her interior monologue. How often women are expected to ‘be nice’ and acquiesce to the demands of men, plus how they get labelled as bitches when they don’t follow this script.

Still loving Pam, still carrying a torch for Bill, really appreciating Bubba.

Dead in the Family / Charlaine Harris

4 stars out of 5

Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric's vampire sire, an ancient being who arrives with Eric's 'brother' in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie's tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton.

In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour, and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War.

2019 Re-Read

The “Pam is Awesome” volume.

'Pam. Listen.'
'The phone is pressed to my ear. Speak.'
'Appius Livius Ocella just dropped in.'
'Fuck a zombie!”

This is the book where Pam becomes my favourite vampire (though Bill is still in the running). I love the deadpan lines that Harris writes for this cold blonde.

As in this conversation between Sookie and Pam:

Pam: “How is Eric?'

Sookie: 'Very tightly wound. Plus, a lot of stuff happened that he'll tell you about.'
Pam: 'Thanks for the warning. I'll go to the house now. You're my favorite breather.'
Sookie: 'Oh. Well ... great.'
She hung up.”

Dead and Gone / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

The vamps have been out for years, and now the weres and shifters have decided to follow the lead of the undead and reveal their existence to the ordinary world. Sookie Stackhouse already knows about them, of course - her brother turns into a panther at the full moon, she's friend to the local were pack, and Sam, her boss at Merlotte's bar, is a shapeshifter.

The great revelation goes well at first - then the horribly mutilated body of a were-panther is found in the parking lot of Merlotte's, and Sookie agrees to use her telepathic talent to track down the murderer. But there is a far greater danger than this killer threatening Bon Temps: a race of unhuman beings, older, more powerful, and far more secretive than the vampires or the werewolves, is preparing for war. And Sookie is an all-too-human pawn in their ages-old battle...

2019 Re-Read

“I added to my mental list of the odd things I'd done that day. I'd entertained the police, sunbathed, visited at a mall with some fairies, weeded, and killed someone. Now it was powdered-corpse removal time. And the day wasn't over yet.”

I’m enjoying the inherent humour in this series. Harris knows that she’s writing soap opera story lines and she’s enjoying it. Especially when Sookie arms herself to deal with malevolent fairies—with a garden trowel and a squirt gun of lemon juice! And Sookie saying to herself, “What had set the fae world off? I’d never seen one. Now you couldn’t throw a trowel without hitting a fairy.”

And once again, I’m carrying a torch for Bill:

“As I watched Bill, waiting with apparent calm for death to come to him, I had a flash of him as I'd known him: the first vampire I'd ever met, the first man I'd ever gone to bed with, the first suitor I'd ever loved. Everything that followed had tainted those memories, but for one moment I saw him clearly, and I loved him again.”

From Dead to Worse / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the manmade explosion at the vampire summit, everyone human and otherwise is stressed, including Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is trying to cope with the fact that her boyfriend Quinn has gone missing.

It's clear that things are changing whether the weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community is caught up in the changes.

In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death, and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood finished flowing, her world will be forever altered.

2019 Re-Read

”The security light made me feel safe, though I knew that was an illusion. If there's light, you can just see what's coming for you a little more clearly.”

How true! We all try to arrange our lives to keep ourselves safe and sound, but in reality we have little control over those matters. But as John Lennon wrote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Ms. Stackhouse could write a dissertation on this subject.

This is the volume where I fell in love with Bill Compton. Yes, he’s a vampire, so inherently untrustworthy, but I just love that fact that he stays in Sookie’s life and just keeps on quietly being her friend and admirer. I adore his loyalty.

All Together Dead / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full dealing with every sort of undead and paranormal creature imaginable. And after being betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Sookie must not only deal with a new man in her life—the shapeshifter Quinn—but also contend with the long-planned vampire summit.

The summit is a tense situation. The vampire queen of Louisiana is in a precarious position, her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans. And there are some vamps who would like to finish what nature started. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she'll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe.

2019 Re-Read

Another evening, another Sookie Stackhouse book. At least I managed to cook some dinner last night, although my kitchen is still a mess. I have to find a way out of this groove I have found myself in—there are other things I need to be reading and other tasks that need my attention. But I may only find the way out by finishing up this series as a re-read.

I’ve always felt that this is the book where Sookie proves that she has good judgment—she seems to understand the plots and conspiracies of the vamp world better than they do, perhaps because she’s an outsider to that world and able to observe it dispassionately. This talent of hers, which Eric calls “thinking outside the box,” attracts unwanted attention from the Queen and her sidekick, Andre. Staying unbound to them is proving difficult. Instead, she ends up bound to Eric the Uncertain.

Eric runs hot and cold towards Sookie, unwilling to admit that he’s unusually attracted to a human woman. It seems kind of like the men who’d like to sleep with a woman but don’t want to be seen with her in public. Good for Sookie, standing up for herself and her right to be acknowledged.

I think just about everyone has been unappreciated at a job at some point in their life. Sookie gets her moment of this as she holds a bomb that she’s scared to set down, waiting for the bomb squad to show up, talking to a bystander about her status in the vamp scene:

”Ha,” I said. “Oh, ha-ha. Yeah, ‘cause they love me. You see how many vampires are up here? Zero, right?”
“One,” said Eric, stepping out of the stairwell.

Lots of foreshadowing for upcoming installments. On to book 8, From Dead to Worse this evening.