Audiobook: Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

Storm Cursed
Author: Patricia Briggs
Narrator: Lorelei King
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 7, 2019)
Length: 10 hours and 15 minutes

Description: In this powerful entry in the number-one  New York Times best-selling series, Mercy Thompson must face a deadly enemy to defend all she loves....

My name is Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman, and I am a car mechanic.

And a coyote shape-shifter.

And the mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack.

Even so, none of that would have gotten me into trouble if, a few months ago, I hadn’t stood upon a bridge and taken responsibility for the safety of the citizens who live in our territory. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. It should have only involved hunting down killer goblins, zombie goats, and an occasional troll. Instead, our home was viewed as neutral ground, a place where humans would feel safe to come and interact with the fae.

The reality is that nothing and no one is safe. As generals and politicians face off with the Gray Lords of the fae, a storm is coming, and her name is Death.

But we are pack, and we have given our word.

We will die to keep it.

My Thoughts: Plans are underway for a meeting of officials from the US government and the Grey Lords in the territory of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack. There are so many things that can go wrong that Mercy would be hard-pressed to even make a guess as to how many.

What she hadn't factored in were a group of witches - a horribly powerful group of witches - who definitely don't want that meeting to take place. Interference from Coyote is also making things more difficult for Mercy because, as always, Coyote has his own agenda.

With Adam busy trying to remain neutral while being under contract to provide security for the meeting due to a bad contract lawyer and an almost forgotten line in an old contract, Mercy has to call in some old friends and some old enemies and some new friends to deal with the witches.

This episode brings in threads from earlier books in the series but stands alone quite well. I love Mercy's relationship with Adam and her growing bonds with the werewolf pack. I liked seeing Zee and Tad and even Uncle Mike again. I enjoyed meeting the Goblin King and, like Mercy, wonder about his cryptic comments about the future.

The book is filled with action and packed with magic. It was an exciting story that kept me up late because I couldn't go to sleep until I knew what happened.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (September 14, 2020)

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I will be combining my YA and adult reading and purchases on this one weekly roundup.

Other Than Reading... 

Letting everyone know what my week was like, let me say that the highlight of the week was my semi-annual dentist appointment to have my teeth cleaned. After that excitement, life went back to what is my new normal - staying home, reading and playing on my computer.

The baseball season which just began is in the final stretch before playoffs. So I have been spending some time watching my Atlanta Braves play ball. It does look like they will make the playoffs unless the go on a long losing streak. The will mean that I will have interesting baseball to watch for a couple of weeks longer.

The football season begins tomorrow and I do intend to watch my Minnesota Vikings play. Their first opponent is their rival Green Bay Packers. I haven't been reading anything about the team composition and so it will all be new to me when I watch on Sunday.

I am reading a lot of books from my review stack these days and also listening to old favorites from my Audible library.
Read Last Week

If you can't wait until the review shows up on my blog, reviews are posted to LibraryThing and Goodreads as soon as I write them (usually right after I finish reading a book.)

• Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews (Mine) - The latest in the Hidden Legacy was an entertaining urban fantasy. My review will be posted on September 19.
• Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop (Mine; Audiobook) - Reread
• A Highlander Is Coming to Town by Laura Trentham (Review; September 29) - Nice contemporary romance. My review will be posted on September 23.

• Sucker Punch by Laurell K. Hamilton (Mine) - The latest in the Anita Blake series was an entertaining mystery. My review will be published on September 24.
• Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop (Mine; Audiobook) - Reread
• The Unspoken by Ian K. Smith (Review; October 1, 2020) - This mystery is the first in a new series that I got from Kindle First. My review will be posted on September 26.

• Pretty Funny for a Girl by Rebecca Elliott (YA Review; Oct. 1) - I read about 10% of this one and felt that it was just too YA for me.

Currently

• Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews (Mine; Audiobook) - Reread
• Deception by Gaslight by Kate Belli (Review; 

Next Week

• Girl on the Run by Abigail Johnson (Review; Oct. 6)
• Shadow Ridge by M. E. Browning (Review; Oct. 6)
• Saddled with Murder by Eileen Brady (Review; Oct. 27)

• Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas (Review; Oct. 6)
• Silent Bite by David Rosenfelt (Review; Oct. 13)
• The Emperor's Wolves by Michelle Sagara (Review; Oct. 13)

Reviews Posted

• Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs (Audiobook)
• Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs (Audiobook)

• See Her Die by Melinda Leigh
• A Trace of Deceit by Karen Odden

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

Bought:

• The Sound of Rain by Gregg Olson
• Vanishing in the Haight by Max Tomlinson
• Shadows in Death by J. D. Robb

Review:

• Tie Die by Max Tomlinson (June 16, 2020)

What was your week like?

Book Review: A Trace of Deceit by Karen Odden

A Trace of Deceit

Author: Karen Odden
Series: Victorian Mystery Series (Book 2)
Publication: William Morrow Paperbacks (December 17, 2019)

Description: A young painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder...

Edwin is dead. That’s what Inspector Matthew Hallam of Scotland Yard tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. While the news is shocking, Annabel can’t say it’s wholly unexpected, given Edwin’s past as a dissolute risk-taker and art forger, although he swore he’d reformed. After years spent blaming his reckless behavior for their parents’ deaths, Annabel is now faced with the question of who murdered him—because Edwin’s death was both violent and deliberate. A valuable French painting he’d been restoring for an auction house is missing from his studio: find the painting, find the murderer. But the owner of the artwork claims it was destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago.

As a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and as Edwin’s closest relative, Annabel makes the case that she is crucial to Matthew’s investigation. But in their search for the painting, Matthew and Annabel trace a path of deceit and viciousness that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of politics, corruption, and secrets someone will kill to keep. 

My Thoughts: This entertaining historical mystery begins with a young art student named Annabel Rowe walking in to her brother's flat to find the police searching it. Her brother has been murdered.

Annabel had a difficult relationship with her brother which began in childhood. Her mother adored Edwin and was his constant support while her father was a much harder taskmaster who demanded Edwin live up to his impossibly high standards and used Annabel as an example to goad his son.

Though they had been close as children, things changed when his father decided to send Edwin away to a boarding school that focused on developing his artistic talent which was great. However, Edwin hated the school and ran away from it ending up living with a school friend and his mother.

Edwin used his artistic talent to clean paintings and to copy them not realizing that he was being used to forge and defraud. He also used drugs and often disappeared. He was caught for the forgery and spent a year in prison which changed his life for the better. He got out determined to put his troubled past behind him but Annabel wasn't quite ready to trust and forgive him. She blamed him for bringing home the illness that killed her parents.

However, she is determined to find out who murdered her brother and is even more determined when she learns that a valuable painting he was cleaning had disappeared. What is most strange is that the painting had been believed lost in a fire in a storage facility that acted as a warehouse for many collectors surplus art.

Annabel convinces Inspector Matthew Hallam that she is necessary to his investigation into her brother's death since she has an in-depth knowledge of the art world which he does not and since it looks like the theft of the painting was key to her brother's death. I liked the way Matthew and Annabel become close as they pursue their investigation. She quickly comes to see all of his various virtues and strengths. She also comes to realize how little she knew her brother and how much she regretted not forgiving him for his faults.

The setting and time period were intriguing. The many characters were distinct and distinctive. This was a thoroughly enjoyable mystery.

Favorite Quote:

And in that moment, I began to trace some of the deepest curves of Matthew's character -- his willingness to observe before judging, his ability to step inside the minds of others, and his desire to shore up the hearts in those who needed it most.

I was gifted with this one by the author. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: A Trace of Deceit by Karen Odden

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

The day I lost Edwin, I think my paintbrush knew before I did.

Friday 56: 

I shook my head.Indeed, I hadn't taken anything substantial since yesterday morning, but the news about the note of guaranty had shaken me. Even as the thought of it returned, the knot beneath my rib cage twisted. 

This week I am spotlighting A Trace of Deceit by Karen Odden. The author gifted me with this title. Here is the description from Amazon:

A young painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder...

Edwin is dead. That’s what Inspector Matthew Hallam of Scotland Yard tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. While the news is shocking, Annabel can’t say it’s wholly unexpected, given Edwin’s past as a dissolute risk-taker and art forger, although he swore he’d reformed. After years spent blaming his reckless behavior for their parents’ deaths, Annabel is now faced with the question of who murdered him—because Edwin’s death was both violent and deliberate. A valuable French painting he’d been restoring for an auction house is missing from his studio: find the painting, find the murderer. But the owner of the artwork claims it was destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago.

As a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and as Edwin’s closest relative, Annabel makes the case that she is crucial to Matthew’s investigation. But in their search for the painting, Matthew and Annabel trace a path of deceit and viciousness that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of politics, corruption, and secrets someone will kill to keep.

Audiobook: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

Dead Heat
Author: Patricia Briggs
Narrator: Holter Graham
Publication: Brilliance Audio (March 3, 2015)
Length: 11 hours and 25 minutes

Description: Praised as "the perfect blend of action, romance, suspense and paranormal" Rex Robot Reviews, the Alpha and Omega novels transport listeners into the realm of the werewolf, where Charles Cornick and Anna Latham embody opposite sides of the shifter personality. Now a pleasure trip drops the couple into the middle of some bad supernatural business....

For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles' role as his father's enforcer. This time their trip to Arizona is purely personal, as Charles plans to buy Anna a horse for her birthday. Or at least it starts out that way....

Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae's cold war with humanity is about to heat up - and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire.

My Thoughts: This was another excellent addition to the Alpha and Omega series. Charles and Anna travel to Arizona which allows Charles to see an old friend and buy Anna an Arabian horse for her 26th birthday. For once, they are not traveling on Bran's business which makes Charles the executioner who eliminates werewolves who are out of control and a danger to werewolves everywhere.

Things go sideways immediately after their arrival. First of all, Charles's old friend Joseph Sani is dying of lung cancer. Even though Charles is willing to turn Joseph to a werewolf and Joseph's father who is the head of the Arizona pack is putting pressure on him to make his son a werewolf, Joseph is adamant about not becoming a werewolf. Charles needs to deal with his grief at the idea of losing one of his few friends.

Second, Joseph's daughter-in-law Chelsea has been placed under a geas to kill her children and then kill herself. Because Chelsea is witchborn, she is able to resist the geas but only by injuring herself with the knife she was supposed to use to murder her children. She is injured so badly that Charles offers her - through her husband Cage - the option of becoming a werewolf which he takes for her.

Third, Charles and Anna need to find the fae who placed the geas and who has been hunting and killing children for hundreds of years in the Phoenix area. They have the help of the FBI in the person of their friend Leslie Fisher who was reassigned to Arizona to be near the fae reservation there after her previous case in Boston. They also have the help of two CNTRP agents who are actually useful.

As they investigate, the fae is still on the hunt for Joseph's five-year-old granddaughter Mackie and Charles and Anna will do anything to keep her safe. The hunt for the fae known as the Doll Collector brings up a lot of issues for Charles and lets Anna know why he has been so reluctant to have children with her.

This was a powerful story. I loved the relationship between Charles and Anna. The emotional intensity of Charles dealing with the grief at the up-coming death of his friend Joseph was strong and brought me to tears more than once as I listened to this story. I loved the message that love is what matters even if the end result is loss and grief and sorrow.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: See Her Die by Melinda Leigh

See Her Die

Author: Melinda Leigh
Series: Bree Taggert (Book 2)
Publication: Montlake (September 15, 2020)

Description: Sheriff Bree Taggert is both hunter and hunted in #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s blood-freezing thriller of murder, rage, and revenge. 

New sheriff Bree Taggert is called to a shooting in a campground shuttered for the winter. But she arrives to find a perplexing crime. There is no shooter, no victim, and no blood. No one but Bree believes the sole witness, Alyssa, a homeless teenager who insists she saw her friend shot.

Bree calls in former deputy Matt Flynn and his K-9 to track the killer and search for Alyssa’s friend. They discover the battered corpse of a missing university student under the ice in Grey Lake—but it’s not the victim they were looking for.

When two more students go missing and additional bodies turn up, Bree must find the link between the victims. She knows only one thing for certain: the murders are fueled by rage. When Alyssa disappears, Bree must race against time to find her before her witness becomes another victim.

My Thoughts: Bree Taggert is still trying to get a handle on her new job as county sheriff. She inherited a force in disorder after the corrupt former sheriff left office. She had a number of deputies quit and she isn't sure she can trust all the ones that remain. Bree is also dealing with being the parent to her orphaned niece and nephew after her sister's murder.

When a call comes in from a young woman who is squatting in some "closed for the winter" cabins, Bree is the closest to respond. Alyssa claims that she saw her friend Harper shot. There is no evidence to be found but Bree thinks Alyssa's claim needs more investigation. Alyssa's story is so close to Bree's own that she is inclined to believe her.

Meanwhile, Matt Flynn has an investigation of his own. One of elderly people who does pet rescues hasn't heard from her grandson and is very worried about him. The two investigations soon become one when a body of one of the grandson's roommates is found dead. 

It is discovered that both the grandson and the dead roommate dated the same woman - a woman who is identified as Alyssa's missing friend. 

I enjoyed this story. I like that the murderer has chapters from his point of view. I liked learning more about Bree and Matt and have high hopes for their growing relationship. I thought the story had a nice amount of action and was quite tension-filled. 

Favorite Quote:

"She's really attached to you." Dana got to her feet.

"But why?" Two months after Bree had been masterfully manipulated into adopting the rescue, she was still disconcerted by the dog's presence. But she was pleased that the panic had ebbed. Ladybug was nothing like Bree's father's dogs. The chubby rescue would never maul a child. The scars on Bree's ankle and should achedwith the thirty-year-old memory.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook: Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs

Silence Fallen
Author: Patricia Briggs
Narrator: Lorelei King, George Newbern
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 7, 2017)
Length: 11 hours and 13 minutes

Description: In the New York Times best-selling Mercy Thompson novels, the coyote shapeshifter has found her voice in the werewolf pack. But when Mercy's bond with the pack - and her mate - is broken, she'll learn what it truly means to be alone....

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form Mercy escapes - only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe.

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise....

My Thoughts: The 10th Mercy Thompson novel finds Mercy kidnapped by vampires, taken to Italy, and dropped right in the middle of a bunch of twisted plots. She is alone, cut off from her mate bond by magic, and at the mercy of a very old vampire. She manages to escape and then finds herself alone in Italy without clothing or her passport. And a coyote doesn't blend in very well in Europe!

Meanwhile, once Adam knows where she is, he assembles a team to go to Italy to get her back - no matter what it takes.

I loved catching up with a lot of the characters I have come to love in the earlier books in this series. I love the strong relationship between Mercy and Adam. I also love the strong relationships that Mercy has with a number of her friends from all the various supernatural groups. This episode had a lot of vampire politics woven into it and explained a lot more about the politics that has turned the Tri-Cities and the Columbia Basin Pack into a safe zone for supernaturals.

This was a fast-paced, action-filled novel that kept me listening late into the night.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.