Shadow Keeper

Shadow Keeper- Christine Feehan
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: May 29, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚

Synopsis: The paparazzi can't get enough of infamous bad boy Giovanni Ferraro. But unknown to them--and the women he beds--he's just playing a role. Keeping the spotlight on himself keeps it off the family business. And if this lethal shadow rider can't hunt in the dark, he'll find his pleasure elsewhere...

Sasha Provis grew up on a Wyoming ranch and thought she knew how to protect herself from predators. But in the nightclub where she works, she's fair game--until one of the owners steps in to protect her. Giovanni is gorgeous. He's dangerous. And his every touch takes her breath away.

The devil at her heels may have finally met its match...

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The third book in Feehan's Shadow Rider series, Shadow Keeper reminded me why I still read Christine Feehan's books.  As hard as many of them are to get through thanks to poor (or no) editing, sometimes the characters are still worth the read.  Giovanni and Sasha are great characters, with instant and believable chemistry between them that grabbed my interest from the beginning.

The Ferraro family seems to the outside world like a crime family of the rich and famous.  Men resent them, women try to catch them for the money.  Unsurprisingly, the Ferraros have grown more than a little jaded by the fortune hunters- and it becomes harder when they have to keep up the fast lane lifestyle to cover their true lives: Shadow riders who help mete out justice.  Giovanni has been sidelined from riding the shadows thanks to an injury and this is the first book in the series that doesn't actually focus on the shadow-rider aspect of their lives, but on the more human and personal aspects (and costs).  Sasha works at the nightclub the Ferraros own and believes Giovanni's playboy image.  When he comes to her rescue at the club, she has to reevaluate what she thinks she knows- about him and herself.  It was sweet to see Sasha, such an honest and straightforward person, in contrast to all the manipulative money hungry people around her.  She doesn't come across as overly naive and Feehan does a good job of letting Sasha stay true to herself, but also giving her enough backbone to stand up to anyone in the Ferraro family.  

Shadow Keeper was more enjoyable than many of Feehan's latest books.  It was better written and focused, so I didn't have to skim through pages of the same thing over and over again.  The mystery and threat of Sasha's stalker stayed front and center, and Feehan didn't let herself get too sidetracked.  While Shadow Rider, the first book in the series, is still my favorite, I enjoyed Keeper.  The importance of family and honesty is a dual theme woven throughout the book, and really speaks to the core of the entire series.  A good book for paranormal romance readers to add to their to-be-read pile.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

From Unseen Fire

From Unseen Fire- Cass Morris
DAW? Penguin Group
Release Date: April 17, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The Dictator is dead; long live the Republic.

But whose Republic will it be? Senators, generals, and elemental mages vie for the power to shape the future of the city of Aven. Latona of the Vitelliae, a mage of Spirit and Fire, has suppressed her phenomenal talents for fear they would draw unwanted attention from unscrupulous men. Now that the Dictator who threatened her family is gone, she may have an opportunity to seize a greater destiny as a protector of the people—if only she can find the courage to try.

Her siblings—a widow who conceals a canny political mind in the guise of a frivolous socialite, a young prophetess learning to navigate a treacherous world, and a military tribune leading a dangerous expedition in the province of Iberia—will be her allies as she builds a place for herself in this new world, against the objections of their father, her husband, and the strictures of Aventan society.

Latona’s path intersects with that of Sempronius Tarren, an ambitious senator harboring a dangerous secret. Sacred law dictates that no mage may hold high office, but Sempronius, a Shadow mage who has kept his abilities a life-long secret, intends to do just that. As rebellion brews in the provinces, Sempronius must outwit the ruthless leader of the opposing Senate faction to claim the political and military power he needs to secure a glorious future for Aven and his own place in history.

As politics draw them together and romance blossoms between them, Latona and Sempronius will use wit, charm, and magic to shape Aven’s fate. But when their foes resort to brutal violence and foul sorcery, will their efforts be enough to save the Republic they love?

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I can't lie, it was the cover that first caught my attention for this book.  It made me want to read the synopsis, which made me want to read the book- which led to one of the best fantasy books I've read in quite some time.  A book that lives up to its potential, From Unseen Fire takes place in an alternate, fantasy, version of ancient Rome.  The cruel dictator who governed the empire and terrorized its people is dead and now it is time to pick up the pieces- socially, politically, personally, and militarily.  

Latona of the Vitelliae is one of those who suffered under the dictator in order to protect her family.  Now freed from his shadow, she finds she cannot fit easily back into the life she led before.  No longer can she hide herself or her talents, or her wish to do more to rebuild the Republic and help its people.  All her life Latona has been held back by other people: her parents, who worried that unscrupulous men would use her and her magic; her husband who wants only a quiet life in the country focusing on his business; and Aventan society itself, which says that a woman who is not a priestess should focus her life and her magic only on her family.  Then she meets Sempronius Tarren, an ambitious man who hates to see talent wasted, and sees in Latona huge potential- if only she can find the courage to reach for it.  Sempronius is the first person to see Latona as she is, not as he wants her to be, so it can be no surprise that their friendship grows into a magnetically compelling attraction.

Sempronius is among those who want to rebuild Aven, and he joins the political clash on what the Republic should look like.  He hopes to break down barriers and allow people to thrive as their talents allow, without being trapped by class or citizenship restrictions.  Others want to return to the glory days of the old Aven, and the ways of the city's founders hundreds of years ago.  Some want to focus only on home while others worry about growing disturbances in the provinces.  Iberia becomes a hotbed of chaos with Aven's allies threatened by a new war-chief determined to protect his land and his people.  

At first glance, these seem like too many different story lines to work, but Morris weaves them together into a brilliant, seamless novel.  From Unseen Fire kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, wondering what would happen next, if favorite characters would succeed in their personal quests. I was constantly worried that the book would end on a cliffhanger and I'd be left waiting desperately to find out what happened next.  True, the book doesn't wrap everything up in a neat bow- this is the start of a series.  But neither does Morris leave her readers yelling "How could you end it there!?" when they reach the last page.  I was struck throughout the entire book by how each of the characters believes completely that their actions are for the good of their land and their people.  Looking at it like that, none of them can be really considered 'villains', although some are more willing to take questionable paths to reach their idea of the greater good.

Although a debut novel, From Unseen Fire reads like it was written by a veteran author.  I greatly look forward to Cass Morris' next Aven book, both to keep following these characters and this world, and to see if Morris can keep to the high bar she set for herself here. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Tyrant

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics- Stephen Greenblatt
W.W. Norton
Release Date: May 8, 2018

Rating:
📚📚

Synopsis: As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.

Cherished institutions seem fragile, political classes are in disarray, economic misery fuels populist anger, people knowingly accept being lied to, partisan rancor dominates, spectacular indecency rules―these aspects of a society in crisis fascinated Shakespeare and shaped some of his most memorable plays. With uncanny insight, he shone a spotlight on the infantile psychology and unquenchable narcissistic appetites of demagogues―and the cynicism and opportunism of the various enablers and hangers-on who surround them―and imagined how they might be stopped. As Greenblatt shows, Shakespeare’s work, in this as in so many other ways, remains vitally relevant today.

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Shakespeare may have lived in a time when it was dangerous to openly criticize the monarch or the government, but he became an expert at finding ways to bring political questions to the people anyway.  By setting his plays in ancient Rome or Scotland, Shakespeare could use the fact that history always repeats itself to make people think about current times when he boldly criticized past leaders.  In this same way, English teachers for generations have tried to draw correlations between Shakespeare and modern society to convince their students that literary classics still have relevance in the modern world.

In Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics, Greenblatt examines the careers of several of Shakespeare's famous kings and leaders: Macbeth, King Lear, Richard III, Coriolanus.  How did these men rise to power? Why did they receive help from followers who must have known what they would be like once they had risen to the throne?  Shakespeare was interested in what mental or emotional triggers create and destroy tyrants and in this book Greenblatt summarizes each case history for us.  It becomes obvious pretty quickly that what Greenblatt  is interested in is holding Shakespeare's views on tyrants and tyranny up to today's political mirror.  Without naming names, Greenblatt leaves the modern reader in no doubt what modern politician he is thinking of when he describes Shakespeare's tyrants.  

While I would have been more interested in reading about Shakespeare's plays and how he used them to safely criticize politics in his own time, Greenblatt's Tyrant was still somewhat interesting.  What I was left uncertain at the end was, what was Greenblatt's point? To hold Shakespeare's plays up as a mirror of life today? To show that the more things change the more they stay the same? Was the reader supposed to see how the general public can prevent tyrants from gaining the power and control they seek? Or was Greenblatt offering suggestions of literary paper topics to future students? The end result is an ok book, but not one that seems to contribute anything new to the study of Shakespeare's plays, his time, or our own.   

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Other Lady Vanishes

The Other Lady Vanishes- Amanda Quick
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: May 8, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Warning: Potential Spoilers!

Synopsis: After escaping from a private sanitarium, Adelaide Blake arrives in Burning Cove, California, desperate to start over.

Working at an herbal tea shop puts her on the radar of those who frequent the seaside resort town: Hollywood movers and shakers always in need of hangover cures and tonics. One such customer is Jake Truett, a recently widowed businessman in town for a therapeutic rest. But unbeknownst to Adelaide, his exhaustion is just a cover.

In Burning Cove, no one is who they seem. Behind facades of glamour and power hide drug dealers, gangsters, and grifters. Into this make-believe world comes psychic to the stars Madame Zolanda. Adelaide and Jake know better than to fall for her kind of con. But when the medium becomes a victim of her own dire prediction and is killed, they'll be drawn into a murky world of duplicity and misdirection.

Neither Adelaide or Jake can predict that in the shadowy underground they'll find connections to the woman Adelaide used to be--and uncover the specter of a killer who's been real all along...

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What would you do if you were locked up in an asylum by your husband so he could spend your inheritance and you could be used as a test subject by doctors?  If you're Adelaide Blake, you escape and head to the small town of Burning Cove to recreate your life.  Adelaide spends two months getting comfortable, making friends, and helping the small tea shop where she works do a booming business in herbal tea remedies for the Hollywood stars who come to Burning Cove to get away from it all.  Then things start getting complicated.  Adelaide's new neighbor, Jake Truett, shows an unusual interest in her, as does psychic to the stars Madame Zolanda. It's hard for Adelaide to know who she can trust, especially when people start dying at a suspiciously fast pace.  Adelaide and Jake must uncover the secret behind her time in the asylum, lies, deceit, and blackmail to stop a deadly drug ring- before they number among its victims.

Adelaide is a deceptively sweet and trusting character, with a delightful strength and real world experience that should appeal to readers from the beginning.  She may not think of herself as strong, but she saves herself from the asylum, creates a new life for herself, and doesn't allow past betrayals to keep her from developing new friendships.  Jake is more of a mysterious figure than Quick's usual hero, and while we know from the beginning that he's one of the good guys, it takes longer than usual to peel back his layers.  We discover him at the same time that Adelaide does, we raise the same questions and get the same surprises.  I enjoyed how, each time you thought you'd learned all there was about Jake, he sheepishly admits to one more surprise.  I especially loved the one about the fountain pen!

The Other Lady is a mystery full of surprises, from first to last.  The drug ring, the murders, betrayal and surprise assistance- Lady has them all.  Then just when you think you've got it all sorted out, you realize there is one final mystery: the mystery of the Other Lady. I enjoyed guessing, thinking I had it figured out, then discovering what the red herrings were and what small clues were bigger than they seemed.  Quick is at her best here, keeping the reader on their toes and immersed in the shadows and silvery glamor that is 1930s Burning Cove.

  

In Amanda Quick's first foray into the world of the 1930s, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Quick introduces us to the small town of Burning Cove, California. The Other Lady Vanishes expands our familiarity of the town, introduces new and colorful characters, and brings back some favorites from Girl.  You don't have to have read Girl to dive into Lady, but it does help you further enjoy some of the returning characters.  The Other Lady Vanishes is a great mystery, full of tricky twists and turns that keep you guessing until the last page.  

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Ask A Manager

Ask A Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work- Alison Green
Ballantine Books/ Random House
Release Date: May 1, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York magazine’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to navigating 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice!
 
There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when
 
• coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it
• you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all”
• you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all
• you catch a colleague in a lie
• your boss seems unhappy with your work
• your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal
• you got drunk at the holiday party

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For all of those people who have wanted advice about any number of potentially awkward workplace discussions, without reading dry tomes on how to be a better person, Alison Green's Ask A Manager is the answer!  Green approaches workplace issues with both experience and humor, and the realization that people are only human- and need to be treated as such.  

Ask A Manager is broken down into 4 sections: you are the manager, you have a manager, you work with others, you're interviewing for a job.  Even if you don't necessarily fall into all those categories (maybe you aren't a manager yet) the entire book is well worth reading.  You get excellent advice about real world situations- and I, for one, always find it helpful to read as many other views as possible.  I felt better about some of my own work experiences after reading this and discovering I wasn't the only one who had ever had to deal with X, Y, or Z.  Since Green is an advice columnist, each section is short and to the point.  She mixes the more general situations ('how do I ask for a raise') to the still common but awkward ('I totally got drunk at the office party) to the (hopefully) less common ('my boss always steals my lunch out of my desk').  Even those situations you haven't dealt with yourself are good opportunities to think about what you would do in a similar situation.

What I really enjoyed about Ask A Manager was the light, humorous, and down-to-earth style of writing Green uses.  You can easily imagine you're having a quick phone conversation with a friend who's giving you the support you need to handle any situation.  Humor and kindness are Green's recipe for handling many of the awkward interactions humans have with each other and I found myself wishing everyone would read this book and follow its advice.  

A fast, fun read that will help give you confidence as you maneuver not just your professional life- this book is full of advice that should certainly be applied to daily life in all aspects!  Not your regular book on how to manage others, but one that makes you reflect on your interactions in a whole new way.  A must read for everyone who has to deal with people.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Dead Girl Running

Dead Girl Running (Cape Charade)- Christina Dodd
HQN Books
Release Date: April 24, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: Girl running...from a year she can't remember, from a husband she prays is dead, from homelessness and fear. Tough, capable Kellen Adams takes a job as assistant manager of a remote vacation resort on the North Pacific Coast. There amid the towering storms and the lashing waves, she hopes to find sanctuary. But when she discovers a woman's dead and mutilated body, she's soon trying to keep her own secrets while investigating first one murder...then another. 

Now every guest and employee is a suspect. Every friendly face a mask. Every kind word a lie. Kellen's driven to defend her job, her friends and the place she's come to call home. Yet she wonders--with the scar of a gunshot on her forehead and amnesia that leaves her unsure of her own past--could the killer be staring her in the face?

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Dead Girl Running begins Christina Dodd's new Cape Charade series with a bang.  Smuggling, stolen artifacts, murder and blackmail all within the first few pages let the reader know just what kind of pace Dodd is going to set for the book, and she lives up to it.  Running's heroine, Kellen Adams, is a puzzle of conflicting pieces: strong, intelligent, independent, while also plagued by nightmares, emotionally fragile, and not always sure she trusts her own mind.  A retired Army veteran, Kellen has been through the war zones (literally) but some of her worst nightmares happened in the United States.  She has a gunshot wound scar on her head and can't remember a year of her life.  

Dodd (Because I'm Watching) does a good job of introducing the reader to Kellen, and let's us see Kellen's confusion and divided self more and more as the book progresses.  Kellen spends most of the book trying to live up to the memory of her cousin and make her proud- only to discover that while she pretended to be that strong person, she actually became that person. In trying to solve the murders shaking up her quiet life at Cape Charade, Kellen finds herself dealing with a suspicious possible-federal agent, obnoxious hotel staff, suspicious guests, and friends she thought she knew and trusted.  Then in comes security expert Max Di Luca (of the Bella Terra De Lucas) and Kellen gets even more confused.  She doesn't know Max, but something about him seems familiar.  Could he be a part of her missing year?  The ending of Dead Girl Running was as energetic and action-packed as any action movie.  But what I liked best was that Kellen remained the independent warrior she had trained herself to be.  She didn't need Max to save her, she saved herself. Repeatedly.     

Readers should be warned that the end of Dead Girl Running isn't the end.  We have to wait until next year's What Doesn't Kill Me to answer some of the questions about Kellen's past- not to mention what she decides for her future!  But the mystery to Running is solved, so don't fear a cliff-hanger of an ending!  Dead Girl Running does contain some scenes of domestic violence and abuse. Dodd handles these scenes and their emotional aftermath with sensitivity, but readers should be aware for possible triggers.

Fans of Dodd's Virtue Falls series will cheer this move down the coast to the Yearning Sands Resort and new readers will wonder how they went so long without reading anything by Christina Dodd.  A must read for all mystery/suspense lovers! 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Evolution's Captain

Evolution's Captain: The Story of the Kidnapping That Led to Charles Darwin's Voyage Aboard the Beagle- Peter Nichols
HarperCollins
Release Date: June 29, 2004

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: One of the great ironies of history is that the famous journey—wherein Charles Darwin consolidated the earth-rattling ‘origin of the species’ discoveries—was conceived by another man: Robert FitzRoy. It was FitzRoy who chose Darwin for the journey—not because of Darwin’s scientific expertise, but because he seemed a suitable companion to help FitzRoy fight back the mental illness that had plagued his family for generations. Darwin did not give FitzRoy solace; indeed, the clash between the two men’s opposing views, together with the ramifications of Darwin’s revelations, provided FitzRoy with the final unendurable torment that forced him to end his own life.

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Evolution's Captain is a fascinating book following Robert Fitzroy, captain of the HMS Beagle and brilliant surveyor.  The book chronicles Fitzroy's two trips on the Beagle and his adventures surveying South America and Tierra del Fuego for the British admiralty.  Along the way Fitzroy becomes fascinated by the native Fuegians and ends up kidnapping three of them and bringing them back to England. His intention is typical of a man of his time: to educate the Fuegians in British manners, 'civilize' them as proper Englishmen (and one woman), convert them to Christianity and then return them to Tierra del Fuego to spread English Christian Civilization through the islands.  

As much as a modern reader cringes at the concept and thoughts expressed in many of the journals and diaries left by Fitzroy, Darwin, and others of the time period, there is no escaping that for a large part of the 1800s this was how England viewed the world and tried to change it in its image.  The trick for any historian is to try and explain to modern readers the culture of the time period- religious, political, and social- that led to this attitude and life approach.  In this Nichols does an excellent job.  The cultural background he explains makes for fascinating reading and helps us gain something of the perspective that Fitzroy was using during his exploits.  While you don't agree with him, at least you come to understand where he was coming from.  

The great temptation for a book like this would be to have all of the first expedition and Fitzroy's life leading up to Darwin's arrival on the Beagle for the second voyage be merely setting the stage for Darwin and allowing him to take over the rest of the book.  I liked that Nichols resists that temptation and makes Darwin another way for us to follow and understand Fitzroy instead of becoming the centerpiece himself. Darwin is also a symbol (or a symptom) of Fitzroy's thinking later in life.  The Victorian era was one of the greatest and fastest changing eras in terms of social and scientific thought until the creation of the internet.  Babbage's analytic machine, the steam engine, developments in geology and biology brought huge changes with them.  Fitzroy, originally something of an amateur scientist himself, becomes one of the reactionaries who take up the religious mania of the times and attempts to use literal readings of the Bible to argue against growing ideas of evolution and scientific change. The great irony of his life becomes his friendship with Darwin and his decision to bring Darwin on the second expedition as a companion, only to be haunted in later life by Darwin's ideas and the feeling that he was personally to blame for their development.  While Nichols ably proves that this was not the case, it haunted Fitzroy for the rest of his life.

My only complaint is one I often have with histories or biographies- Nichols tends to allow foreshadowing to creep into his writing (especially at the end of chapters). The common "if only they knew", "this would change everything" type of remarks always annoy me, although Nichols does it less than some biographies I've read.

A fascinating book, and a must read for people interested in Victorian England and its cultural/scientific/religious developments , sea exploration and adventure , and South America.