Book Review: A Brush with the Moon by Raquel Lyon

A Brush with the Moon
Author: Raquel Lyon
Series: Foxblood Book 1
Publication: Self-Published (November 28, 2010)

Description: One moment is all it takes to change your life. For Sophie, it happened the day the fox attacked her.

All Sophie ever wanted was a way out. Only a few weeks ago, she was a quiet art student with an overbearing mother and no higher dream than starting university and reuniting with her BFF, but destiny intervenes in the form of a fox bite.

If being attacked by a rabid animal isn't freaky enough, her new town has secrets. People are dying, and Sophie feels she is being watched. Then there's the arrogant and annoyingly sexy Sebastian with his plummy accent and come-to-bed eyes creeping her out. She should stay well away, but then he does live in the spooky manor house, and curiosity is her middle name.

My Thoughts: Sophie is looking forward to getting out of her dead-end town and studying art at a nearby university. She already has plans to live with her best friend Beth who has found a nice apartment above the local undertaker. But a fox bite changes a lot of her plans.

Beth has always had vivid dreams but now her dreams seem to be turning into premonitions. One of the first guys she meets at the university is Sebastian whose eyes have been haunting her dreams for years. Sebastian and his cousin Connor are both attending the university though they are a few years older than Sophie and her friends.

Sebastian introduces her to a whole new world filled with werewolves, vampires, demons and other paranormals. He tells her that she has been chosen by the goddess Tokala to fulfill an epic destiny. Sophie isn't sure what to believe but she is developing strange new powers of her own.

I liked the worldbuilding in this one where their are different worlds each with different varieties of paranormals. It seems that Earth has become something of a battleground where they are all fighting for power. 

I didn't really care for Sophie. I didn't like the way she treated her mother or her best friend. I also couldn't quite buy in to the massive personality change she exhibited in the story. She didn't seem like a very nice person and I wondered why the goddess had chosen her for a great destiny. I also thought that she hooked up with the wrong cousin. Connor showed caring and concern for her while Sebastian went off without a word and just left her behind and confused. He also seemed to be careless of her feelings and seemed to find it easy to dismiss her when he had other things to do. 

This book is the beginning of a trilogy and the trilogy is part of a much larger sequence of stories set in the same fictional universe that only loosely resembles the real world.

Favorite Quote:

Where was the young student with dreams of being an artist? She certainly wasn't visible in the mirror before me. I had secretly undergone a complete metamorphosis into bitch lady of the manor, and I wasn't sure if I was wholly comfortable with that. It felt like a pretty lonely position, and loneliness is scarier than any monster.

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

Friday Memes: A Brush with the Moon by Raquel Lyon

 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:

"Soph? Sophie! I can tell you're daydreaming again, you know." Beth's voice echoed through the receiver. "Do you think you could quit playing with the fairies for just one minute and listen to me? This is important!"

Friday 56: 

"Well, it sounds to me like he came on to you...and it's totally not fair. You've had a nightclub owner and the hottest, richest guy in town after you this week, and I haven't had a sniff. What's going on? It's not normal. It's like the Twilight Zone around here."

This week I'm spotlighting A Brush with the Moon by Raquel Lyon. This is a free Kindle book and starts a series. Here is the description from Amazon:

One moment is all it takes to change your life. For Sophie, it happened the day the fox attacked her.

All Sophie ever wanted was a way out. Only a few weeks ago, she was a quiet art student with an overbearing mother and no higher dream than starting university and reuniting with her BFF, but destiny intervenes in the form of a fox bite.

If being attacked by a rabid animal isn't freaky enough, her new town has secrets. People are dying, and Sophie feels she is being watched. Then there's the arrogant and annoyingly sexy Sebastian with his plummy accent and come-to-bed eyes creeping her out. She should stay well away, but then he does live in the spooky manor house, and curiosity is her middle name.

Audiobook: Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber and Eric Flint

Cauldron of Ghosts
Author: David Weber and Eric Flint
Series: Crown of Slaves - Honor Harrington Universe Book 3
Narrator: Peter Larkin
Publication: Audible Studios (April 8, 2014)
Length: 22 hours and 53 minutes

Description: The Mesan Alignment: a centuries-old cabal that seeks to impose its vision of a society dominated by genetic rank onto the human race. Now the conspiracy stands exposed by spies Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat—one an agent of Honor Harrington’s Star Kingdom of Manticore, the other a Havenite operative. The outing of the Alignment has turned the galaxy’s political framework topsy-turvy. Old coalitions have disintegrated. New alliances have been born.

For starters, the long and hard-fought war between the Republic of Haven and the Star Empire of Manticore is not only over, but these bitter enemies have formed a new pact. Their common foe: the Mesan Alignment itself.

But more information is needed to bring the Alignment out of the shadows. Now, defying the odds and relying on genetic wizardry themselves for a disguise, Zilwicki and Cachat return to Mesa—only to discover that even they have underestimated the Alignment’s ruthlessness and savagery.

Soon they are on the run in Mesa’s underworld, not only hunted by the Alignment but threatened by the exploding conflict on the planet between Mesa’s overlords and the brutalized slaves and descendants of slaves who have suffered under their rule for so long. But if Zilwicki and Cachat succeed in rooting out the ancient conspiracy, a great evil may be finally removed from the galaxy—and on a long-oppressed planet, freedom may finally dawn.

My Thoughts: This episode concentrates on Zilwicki and Cachat's efforts on Mesa to discover more about the Mesan Alignment. A lot of time is spent learning about the culture of the planet which is divided into three groups: the full citizens, the seccies who are descendants of manumitted slaves, and the slaves. The concentration is on the seccies. 

The problem is that the Mesan Alignment needs to get its essential people off the planet without alerting anyone to their disappearance. The solution they decide to implement is to execute a number of terrorist attacks which they can blame on the Audubon Ballroom and Manticore. The result is that the law forces and army of the Mesan planet which are composed of full citizens blame the seccies who they claim are sheltering the terrorists for the attacks and decide to teach them a lesson.

What they don't know is that the seccies have been gathering armament for years because they feared just such an event. And now they have the assistance of Cachat and Thandi Palane to help them defeat the invaders. Zilwicki escapes to Manticore to try to get help before the seccies lose the war and he loses his friends Cachat and Palane now knowing that Admiral Henke also has plans to visit Mesa along with her fleet.

The story also follows the journey of Zachariah McBryde who is one of the people the Mesan Alignment is evacuating to their new stronghold. He seems to be starting to have some second thoughts about the goals of the Alignment but is still generally in agreement with the master plan.

There are a number of other subplots including the revolutions the Alignment is fomenting on Verge planets and in the Maya System. 

All in all, a long but interesting entry into the Honor Harrington series. 

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

Audiobook: In Enemy Hands by David Weber

In Enemy Hands
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 7
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (May 8, 2009)
Length: 19 hours and 55 minutes

Description: The Road to Hell

Honor Harrington's career has its ups and its downs. She's survived ship-to-ship battles, assassins, political vendettas, and duels. She's been shot at, shot down, and just plain shot, had starships blown out from under her, and made personal enemies who will stop at nothing to ruin her, and somehow she's survived it all.

But this time she's really in trouble.

The People's Republic of Haven has finally found an admiral who can win battles, and Honor's orders take her straight into an ambush. Outnumbered, outgunned, and unable to run, she has just two options: see the people under her command die in a hopeless, futile battle... or surrender them-and herself-to the Peeps.

There can be only one choice, and at least the People's Navy promises to treat their prisoners honorably. But the Navy is overruled by the political authorities, and Honor finds herself bound for a prison planet aptly named "Hell"... and her scheduled execution.

Put into solitary confinement, separated from her officers and her treecat Nimitz, and subjected to systematic humiliation by her gaolers, Honor's future has become both bleak and short. Yet bad as things look, they're about to get worse ...for the Peeps.

My Thoughts: This is the episode when Honor is captured by the Peeps.  Unfortunately, she isn't being treated as a military officer as the old charges from Basilisk have been resurrected and she is condemned to die.

Cordelia Ransom, who is the Peep's propaganda expert, is along and looks at Honor's capture as a terrific opportunity to gain positive publicity for her regime. No matter what her Naval officers try to convince her to do, she is determined. She has come to believe that her own skewed version of reality is actually reality. The Naval officers know that what she intends will have bad consequences for the Peeps in the form of bad publicity and lack of the secret support the Peeps have been getting from the Solarian League which is the only thing that is allowing them to keep up with the Manticorans and their allies. These actions will also have a bad effect on the Peeps' own navy too as shown by the two major Peeps military people who get swept up in Ransom's plotting.

Meanwhile, Honor is being badly treated by her captors from State Security. She has had her prosthetics disconnected which leaves her looking like a stroke victim and having vision in only one eye. She has been separated from Nimitz who was also badly injured.

But her own people aren't going to give up despite being prisoners themselves. And Horace Harkness finally gets to shine as he professes his allegiance to the Peeps and then subverts their computer system and plans the daring escape but not before they reach the prison planet known as Hell.

This was an exciting episode. I'm very glad that the next one is queued up for my next listening experience.

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

ARC Review: Archangel's Sun by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Sun
Author: Nalini Singh
Series: Guild Hunter Series (Book 13)
Publication: Berkley (November 24, 2020)

Description: A horrifying secret rises in the aftermath of an archangelic war in New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s deadly and beautiful Guild Hunter world. . . 

The Archangel of Death and the Archangel of Disease may be gone but their legacy of evil lives on—especially in Africa, where the shambling, rotting creatures called the reborn have gained a glimmer of vicious intelligence.

It is up to Titus, archangel of this vast continent, to stop the reborn from spreading across the world. Titus can’t do it alone, but of the surviving powerful angels and archangels, large numbers are wounded, while the rest are fighting a surge of murderous vampires.

There is no one left . . . but the Hummingbird. Old, powerful, her mind long a broken kaleidoscope. Now, she must stand at Titus’s side against a tide of death upon a discovery more chilling than any other. For the Archangel of Disease has left them one last terrible gift . . . .

My Thoughts: The devastating archangelic wars are over and the evil archangels defeated, but the aftermath might be almost worse especially in Africa. Many angels and archangels were gravely injured and forced into sleep to heal. Those that are left have many more tasks to complete in order to rebuild than there are hands to complete them.

Africa was especially hard hit since it was the home of Charisemnon who left armies of reborn behind when he was defeated. Archangel Titus and his people bear the brunt of the cleanup because Titus is now the Archangel of all of Africa. He and his people are spending all of their time trying to clean out nests of reborn before they can infect those who remain.

The Cadre decides to send Lady Sharine, who was once known as the Hummingbird, to Africa to help him. The Hummingbird is a treasure among the angels. She is their greatest artist. But she spent centuries shattered in her mind and heart. In this story we find out why her mind and heart were shattered and see how she healed. 

Titus is afraid that the Hummingbird will be more of a burden than a help. He doesn't have time to cater to a delicate angel who needs to be protected. Luckily, Lady Sharine isn't that angel anymore. But it takes time before Titus comes to see that.

This was a wonderful episode in the Guild Hunters series. I loved getting to know both Titus and Sharine and watching them fall in love. I also enjoyed the mystery aspects of the story as Titus and Sharine try to discover what Charisemnon's end game really was and how they can defeat his plans.

The story was emotionally intense and fast-paced. Fans of the series will enjoy this episode even though they don't get much of a chance to see other favorite characters from earlier books in the series. 

Favorite Quote:

It was tempting to admire him for his clear moral lines and refusal to bask in his power, but Sharine wasn't about to fall prey to the urge.

Especially when she'd already found herself susceptible to his devastating smiles. No, the last thing Sharine needed was to begin to admire the Archangel of Africa. Big, brash, beautiful Titus would use any such admiration to walk all over her. Not because he was cruel, but because he was Titus.

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Nov. 16, 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... 

This week was a return to winter. We have received 8 inches of snow so far with more predicted for today (Saturday) and tomorrow. The temperatures are decidedly below average too. I don't think we got to 30 degrees yesterday.

I've been spending my time as usual - staying home except for a quick trip to the grocery store, reading and listening to books, playing computer games. I did set up all my posts for January including deciding (tentatively) what to read around the review books that were already on the calendar. It was while I was doing that work on my blog that I started listening to Written in Red again.

I also baked banana bread from a recipe I won't be using again. It turned out too dense. I need to try a different recipe next time I bake it. I tried out a new recipe for Pasta e Fagiole soup this week that was much more successful. I'm making split pea soup tomorrow. For some reason, snow and cold just make me want to make soups!

Sunday Update: Our little bit of additional snow turned out to measure 8 inches at my house. That would have been bad enough but - to add the the misery - I woke up at 6:15 AM to discover the power was out. I woke my brother because I knew he had to go to work. The only problem was that without power, he couldn't raise the garage door or start the snow blower. He ended up calling in to work and huddling by the gas fireplace in my library until the power was restored which happened at about 11 AM.

Once it was light enough, I had enough power remaining on my Kindle to read. So I spent the bulk of the morning reading and napping - since I hadn't intended to get up at 6 in the morning. Once power was restored, I made my batch of split pea soup and watched football on TV. My brother got the garage door open, started the snowblower and cleaned out the driveway. 

We're still waiting at 8 PM for a snowplow to come by to clear out the streets though he could likely get through it with his Subaru and snow tires. He has to be at work tomorrow at 9 AM and might have to clear the driveway again before he goes. 

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.)

• Tie Die by Max Tomlinson (Review; June 16) - The second Colleen Hayes mystery brings the 1960s to life through the eyes of an unusual private investigator. My review will be posted on December 3.
• The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (Mine; Audiobook) -- Another excellent story by Kearsley stars a writer of historical fiction and the women whose memories she is experiencing from 1708 and is the middle of efforts to return Charles Stewart to his throne in Scotland. My review will be posted on December 17.

• A Pretty Deceit by Anna Lee Huber (Mine) - The fourth Verity Kent mystery was an entertaining and engaging story. My review will be posted on December 10.
• Cast in Honor by Michelle Sagara (Mine; Audiobook) - This is the eleventh in the Chronicles of Elantra and is a reread. I won't be reviewing it on my blog but did review it on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

Currently

• Written in Red by Anne Bishop (Audiobook) - I needed something to listen to while doing computer work and chose this old favorite.
• Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T. A. Willberg (Review; Dec. 29) - I'm at 24% of this strange mystery which is my final 2020 review book.
• Deck the Hounds by David Rosenfelt (Mine) - I was looking for a Christmas story because the review will be posted on Dec. 26 and it seemed appropriate to find something Christmasy to read.

Next Week

• All the Colors of Night by Jayne Ann Krentz (Jan. 5)
• Portrait of Peril by Laura Joh Rowland (Jan. 12)

• A Curious Incident by Vicki Delany (Jan. 12)
• The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C. M. Waggoner (Jan. 12)

Reviews Posted

• Honor Among Enemies by David Weber
• Shadow of Victory by David Weber

• Vanishing in the Haight by Max Tomlinson
• The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill

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

Bought:

• The Bone Jar by S W Kane (Kindle and audiobook)
• Star Runner by B. V. Larson (audiobook)
• Star Runner by B. V. Larson (Kindle)

• Run, Hide, Fight Back by April Henry (Kindle and Audiobook)
• Old Bones by Aaron Elkins (Kindle and Audiobook)
• Lies by Kylie Scott (Kindle and audiobook)

New Review:

• Deep Into the Dark by P. J. Tracy (Jan. 12)
• Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano (Feb. 2)
• The Lost Village by Camilla Sten (March 23)

What was your week like?

ARC Review: The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill

The Bright and Breaking Sea
Author: Chloe Neill
Series: A Captain Kit Brightling Novel
Publication: Berkley (November 17, 2020)

Description: Chloe Neill brings her trademark wit and wild sense of adventure to a stunning seafaring fantasy starring a dauntless heroine in a world of magic and treachery.

Kit Brightling, rescued as a foundling and raised in a home for talented girls, has worked hard to rise through the ranks of the Isles’ Crown Command and become one of the few female captains in Queen Charlotte's fleet. Her ship is small, but she's fast—in part because of Kit’s magical affinity to the sea. But the waters become perilous when the queen sends Kit on a special mission with a partner she never asked for.

Rian Grant, Viscount Queenscliffe, may be a veteran of the Continental war, but Kit doesn’t know him or his motives—and she’s dealt with one too many members of the Beau Monde. But Kit has her orders, and the queen has commanded they journey to a dangerous pirate quay and rescue a spy who's been gathering intelligence on the exiled emperor of Gallia.

Kit can lead her ship and clever crew on her own, but with the fate of queen and country at stake, Kit and Rian must learn to trust each other, or else the Isles will fall....

My Thoughts: Neill's new fantasy was an entertaining adventure. Kit Brightling was a foundling raised by an independent woman who had high expectations for her adopted daughters. Kit has become a Captain in the Queen's Own ostensibly working as a courier but actually as an agent of the Queen. 

The Queen calls her in to rescue a captured spy from an impregnable prison. The only problem is that the Queen wants her to work with a member of the Beau Monde, a Viscount named Rian Grant. They do not immediately hit it off. 

Grant feels that he has done his service to the Queen in the battles on the Continent. Now he wants to spend time on his estate since it was run down during the war and needs his attention to get it out of debt. But rescuing the spy only begins the adventure because he gives them information leading to a traitor within the government of the Queen.

This story takes place in 1815 or so in a world similar to that of the Napoleonic era except that in this world there is magic. Kit is aligned to the sea which is an advantage for a sea captain. However, the former emperor Gerard has been exiled to an isolated island but his supporters have plans to free him which involves lots of magic.

I liked the relationship that grew between Kit and Grant and that it wasn't an "instant love" sort of relationship. I liked Kit's relationship with her crew. The whole setting was excellently done. I loved the details about sailing ships. I also loved that in this world there seemed to be a lot of equality between the sexes and a multi-ethnic society. Of course, there were also the old fuddy-duddies of the Beau Monde who didn't want women in positions of power and certainly not foundlings. There was also a prejudice among the Beau Monde regarding magic and its use. 

I can't wait for more of Kit Brightling's adventures.

Favorite Quote:

Thornberry and Smith walked away. Preston stayed where he was, and looked down his titled, narrow nose at Kit.

"Impudence is unbecoming in a young officer. Particularly a female."

"Arrogance is unbecoming in an old officer, regardless of gender. So I suppose we both have things to complain about."

With that, she walked away, and left him staring after her.

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