Audiobook Review: Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Hounded
Author: Kevin Hearne
Narrator: Luke Daniels
Series: The Iron Druid Chronicles (Book 1)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (April 19, 2011)
Length: 8 hours and 6 minutes

Description: The first novel in the Iron Druid Chronicles - introducing a cool, new, funny urban fantasy hero

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old - when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power - plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish - to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

My Thoughts: HOUNDED begins the Iron Druid series of urban fantasy novels. Atticus O'Sullivan is laying low in the desert Southwest. He's the last Druid and over 21 centuries old despite looking 21. He'd be happy quietly running his adult bookstore and tea shop and roaming the desert with his wolfhound. But he also holds a magic sword, and an ancient Celtic deity has been looking for it and for Atticus for centuries.

With the help of some witches, the deity has tracked Atticus down. Atticus will need the help of the friends he has gathered if he wants to survive. Luckily, his lawyers are a werewolf and a vampire. He also has the aid of a couple of goddesses and a Hindi witch inhabiting the body of his favorite bartender. 

The story has great worldbuilding and a wonderful snarky main character and his even snarkier canine companion. It was packed with action and with humor. 

I bought this one June 27, 2022. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Field of Dishonor by David Weber

Field of Dishonor
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington (Book 4)
Publication: Baen Books (December 15, 2012)

Description: HONOR BETRAYED

The People's Republic of Haven's sneak attack on the Kingdom of Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy stands victorious.

But Manticore has domestic problems of its own, and success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington. Now, trapped at the core of a political crisis she never sought, betrayed by an old and vicious enemy she'd thought vanquished forever, she stands alone

She must fight for justice on a battlefield she never trained for in a private war that offers just two choices: death . . . or a ''victory'' that can end only in dishonor and the loss of all she loves.

My Thoughts: This story concentrates on Honor's relationship with Captain Lord Pavel Young. After his cowardice and desertion on the field of battle that was near the end of the previous book, this book begins with his court martial. But Young has powerful friends and the government needs to appease them if they are going to get the declaration of war against Haven that the need so badly.

An almost hung jury saves Young from being shot but enough was proven to have him cashiered out of the Navy. After his father's death just after the verdict is given, Young becomes the new Lord North Hollow who inherits his father's secrets and position in the House of Lords. But he blames Honor for all his problems and won't be content until she is dead.

Before he gets to Honor though, he decides to make her life terrible by killing Paul Tankersley who is Honor's love and lover. North Hollow hires Denver Summervale to challenge Paul to a duel. Summervale is a cashiered Marine who is a killer for hire who has killed many men on women on the field of honor. 

Honor had been sent to Grayson to get her out from under the massive publicity the court martial has stirred up. When she hears about Paul's death, she is determined to challenge Summervale to a duel and kill him herself. But Honor has friends on her side who get to Summervale and convince him to tell them who hired him. To no one's surprise, the man was hired by North Hollow and Summervale's confession is on tape. Of course, with the confession gotten by less than legal means it is impossible to take the take to law enforcement.

Honor publicly calls out North Hollow and demands that he meet her on the field of honor even though she gets a lot of pressure from the Queen's government and her own superiors to back off. North Hollow's support is still needed in the upcoming war effort. But Honor won't be dissuaded. She feels that the cost to her career is a cost worth paying if it gets justice for Paul and shows North Hollow for the coward he is. 

The story was packed with emotional intensity. Honor's grief for the loss of Paul was very convincingly written.

I bought this story three times - print, Kindle, and audiobook. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Short Victorious War by David Weber

The Short Victorious War
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington (Book 3)
Publication: Baen Books (January 1, 2002)

Description: The families who rule the People’s Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury’s empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent. But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power: another short, victorious war to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It’s a card they’ve played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare allies. Enemies who in the past have always backed down. Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they’re up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that’s prepared to give them a war that’s far from short...and anything but victorious

My Thoughts: The People's Republic of Haven is in trouble. Their economy is tanking because so many of their people are on public assistance. They can only support their economy and the privileges the wealthy enjoy by continually adding new star systems to their Republic. So they have the wonderful idea to start, or pretend to start, a war with Manticore.

Honor Harrington has completed her long complicated recovery from the injuries sustained in the previous book and has been assigned as Flag Captain to a new ship named Nike and sent with a task force to a frontier repair base. The only problem is that that Admiral in charge of the task force doesn't like Honor whom he sees as hot-tempered and reckless which causes some problems for her despite the support of her immediate superior who is also in the Admiral's bad books. 

Since the Peeps are conducting all sorts of feints into neighboring star systems, the Admiral decides that he needs to defend one of the more populous systems and leaves Honor and her boss to defend the repair facility with very little help.

Haven has been secretly watching the whole area with stealth ships and knows when the largest part of the force leaves the repair facility and knows that it is time to take it and bring the war into official existence. It should be easy as their ships and armaments vastly outnumber those left with Honor. But Honor and her boss have done all the tricky planning they can to get their system as safe as it can be and can hope to hold out until help arrives to support them.

Meanwhile on Haven, Rob Pierre is planning a revolution which will take down the current government and put himself and his own supporters in control. And he is planning to use part of the Navy he hates to accomplish his goals. 

This was another exciting episode in the Honor Harrington series. It was filled with action and adventure.

I bought the Kindle copy November 19, 2025. It joins the paperback and audiobook already in my collection. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz

Shattering Dawn
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Series: The Lost Night Files (Book 3)
Publication: Recorded Books (January 7, 2025)
Length: 8 hours and 43 minutes

Description: An unsettling investigation teaches two suspicious people how to trust, in the next thrilling novel of the Lost Night Files trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz.

Amelia Rivers, a member of the Lost Night Files podcast team, hires private investigator Gideon Sweetwater to catch the stalker who has been watching her. Amelia suspects that whoever it is may be connected to the shadowy organization responsible for the night that she and her two friends lost to amnesia—a night that upended their lives and left them with heightened paranormal talents.

Gideon believes that Amelia is either paranoid or an outright con artist, but they have a chemistry he can’t resist. He takes the case despite his skepticism. For her part, Amelia has second thoughts about the wisdom of employing the mysterious Mr. Sweetwater. She is wary of the powerful attraction between them and deeply uneasy about the nightmarish paintings on the walls of his home. She senses these were inspired by his own dreams.

Amelia knows she doesn’t have time to find another investigator, and Gideon is forced to reckon with the truth when he disrupts what was intended to be Amelia’s kidnapping. Now the pair is on the run, with no choice but to return to the haunting ruins of the old hotel where Amelia’s lost night occurred. They are desperate to stop a killer, as well as the people who are conducting illegal experiments with a dangerous drug designed to enhance psychic abilities. If they are to survive, they will have to trust each other and the passion that bonds them.

My Thoughts: The finale of the Lost Night Files trilogy stars Amelia Rivers and Gideon Sweetwater. Amelia is a photographer who has found a way to take pictures of auras and does real estate and corporate headshots to pay the bills. When she believes that she has attracted a stalker, she goes to Gideon Sweetwater who works as a private investigator.

Gideon has been recently injured on one of his cases but is intrigued by Amelia and her problems. He quickly determines that she does have a stalker. The two decided to go back to the abandoned hotel that was the scene of Amelia's lost night to see if any clues have been missed.

Their visit confirms that Amelia and her friends had been kidnapped and had illegal experiments performed on them. The experiments were designed to enhance their psychic talents, and the experimenters have been watching them to see if the experiments were successful.

Unfortunately, Amelia and her friends were all psychic before being experimented on and were used to hiding their psychic abilities making them less than useful for the experimenters. Gideon has psychic talents of his own which doesn't come as a surprise to Amelia since she chose him because his name appeared on the same list she and her friends were on. The list indicates those tested for presumed psychic powers.

This episode also had portions from the viewpoint of the man who set up the experiments and who is eager to see what results they had because he has been playing around with his own psychic abilities. He is going insane because of his experiments.

This was an entertaining finale to the trilogy with lots of doors left open for further explorations in the world Krentz created. 

I bought this one from Audible November 11, 2025. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Cyprian by Mercedes Lackey

The Cyprian
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 18)
Publication: DAW (December 30, 2025)

Description: A cozy, cottage-core Regency fantasy perfect for fans of Bridgerton

Elena Whitstone and her seven brothers, abandoned by her mother, find themselves with a new stepmother. At first she seems more neglectful than evil, until just after Christmas she proves herself to be worse than evil; she is an actual magician, a Master of Water, who attempts to murder Elena's seven brothers when they are skating. When they survive that attempt by transforming into swans, she drives them away.

But the shock of having all of his heirs perish in a frozen pond is too much for Elena's father. He dies, and his widow is abruptly confronted with the inconvenient truth that the estate is entailed, and she not only must leave, she is lawfully in charge of Elena.

Furious, and possessing "only" what was gifted to her during her marriage, the stepmother retreats to Bath, to take up residence in the luxurious townhouse that was bought for her, and resume her former profession as a "Cyprian," a very exclusive courtesan, with Elena reluctantly posing as a page-boy and her servant. Nothing lasts forever, of course, and three years later, Elena is rapidly maturing too much to continue that ruse--and the stepmother is facing the ravages of time. The stepmother concocts a plan to establish an exclusive brothel and regain her wealth by selling Elena to the highest bidder.

Alone, Elena must not only find a way to save herself, but to reverse the spell that has transformed her brothers.

The latest in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series is a stand-alone romantasy based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Wild Swans.  

My Thoughts: This eighteenth book in the Elemental Masters series is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's The Wild Swans. It is set during England's Regency period.

Elena Whitstone is the youngest of Lord Whitstone's children. She has seven older brothers. Their mother disappears when she is quite young leaving them in the neglectful care of their father. When he comes home from Bath with a new bride, things change for the children. 

Lord Whitstone seems besotted by his new bride who immediately banishes the children to the nursery and attempts to starve them. Luckily, the children have allies in the form of the old servants. They make many plans to escape their father and new stepmother's control. However, before they can implement any of them, their new stepmother is revealed to them as an evil mage who changes the brothers into swans and chases them from their home. 

Elena is left to her stepmother's care when her father dies of grief at the loss of his sons. The stepmother is angry to learn that the estate is entailed and that she needs to leave with only the gifts she was given during the marriage and Elena.

The stepmother travels to Bath, changes her name, and resumes her previous career as a Cyprian - an exclusive prostitute. This career is aided by her magic which lets her enthrall men. She makes Elena her tiger - a carriage boy. 

But plans change when her stepmother's latest protector - also a water mage - encourages her to open a bordello and conduct a virgin's auction with Elena as the virgin. This causes Elena to run from home where she finds herself on the estate of air mages who shelter her and help her find a way to free her brothers from their spell.

I enjoyed this story. I love the Regency setting. I liked the character of Elena who is resilient and determined. I liked the magical creatures - the sylphs - who try to help the children when the stepmother is not around. 

My only complaint is the pacing of the story. Everything gets resolved in the last two percent of the book after a long, leisurely build-up. The long, leisurely build up seemed to hit a wall where the author realized that she was at some sort of page limit and had to wrap everything up immediately. 

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? (December 22, 2025)

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.

Want to See What I Added to My Stack? links to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.

Other Than Reading...

This was a nice week in the lead-up to Christmas. We had three days this week where the high temperature was above freezing. Tuesday's high was 43 degrees. This led to a lot of melting. Our solar panels are partially exposed for the first time since November 24. Later in the week the temperatures plummeted. When my brother and I went out Saturday the temperature was -5F and a really icy wind was blowing. 

Thursday, we had misty rain in the morning and a flash freeze in the afternoon. My housecleaner stopped by at three only to tell me that she was heading home because of the really icy roads. By the time my brother got home from work in the evening, the ice was gone, and the winds had blown the roads dry. My cleaner will try to come again Monday or Tuesday.

This week will be pretty quiet. I do have to get up rather early to go in for some bloodwork on Monday. Otherwise, I don't have any plans. Our Christmas should be quiet with our traditional ham dinner. My brother bought the ingredients on Saturday since he works every day now until Christmas. We stocked up on Christmas cookies and candies when we were out on Saturday too. 

I hope to get a chance to read the last of my January review copies this week. I may get sidetracked by audiobooks though. 

Read Last Week

• Imitation in Death by J. D. Robb (Audiobook Reread) -- 17th in the In Death series
• Divided in Death by J. D. Robb (Audiobook Reread) -- 18th in the In Death series
• Detour by Jeff Rake & Rob Hart (Review, January 13) -- Science fiction with ensemble cast. Marred by major cliffhanger ending. My review will be posted on January 8.

• Toucan Keep a Secret by Donna Andrews (Audiobook, mine since December 5, 2025) -- 23rd in the Meg Langslow humorous mystery series. My review will be posted on January 13.
• Inside Man by John McMahon (Review, January 13) -- Sequel to HEAD CASES. Neurodivergent FBI Agent works on a gun smuggling case which also involves serial killers and possible terrorist attack. My review will be posted on January 8.
• The River Knows by Amanda Quick (Chirp Audiobook, mine since October 3, 2025) -- Historical romantic suspense set in the Victorian era. My review will be posted on January 13.

• Enchanted by Nora Roberts (Chirp Audiobook, Mine since May 12, 2025) -- Finale to the Donovan Legacy series of paranormal romances. My review will be posted on January 15.
• Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews (Audiobook Reread)
• Hidden Talents by Jayne Ann Krentz (Audiobook, Mine since December 18, 2025) -- Classic JAK contemporary romantic suspense. My review will be posted on January 29.

Currently

• Outfoxed by David Rosenfelt (Kindle, mine since September 29, 2023)
• White Hot by Ilona Andrews (Audiobook reread)

Next Week

• The Brazen Bride by Stephanie Laurens (Kindle, mine since August 6, 2025)
• Ember Eternal by Chloe Neill (Kindle, mine since November 28, 2025)
• A Field Guide to Murder by Michelle L. Cullen (Review, January 27)

• Bone of Contention by Kristi Rose (Chirp Audiobook, Mine since February 11, 2025)
• Tell-Tale Treats by Jennifer J. Chow (Review, January 27)
• Such a Perfect Family by Nalini Singh (Review, January 27)

Reviews Posted

• The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
• Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge
• Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz

• The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz
• The Honor of the Queen by David Weber
• All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 

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

Review:

• The Midnight Taxi by Yosha Gunasekera (Review, February 10)
• The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst (Review, March 31)
• Beach Thriller by Jamie Day (Review, June 9)

Bought:

• Cast in Atonement by Michelle Sagara 
• Kirkyards & Kindness by Kelley Armstrong
• Hidden Talents by Jayne Ann Krentz (BookBub ($.99) & Audiobook add-on ($4.50))

What was your week like?

Book Review: All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

All In
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Naturals (Book 3)
Publication: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (November 3, 2015)

Description: Three casinos. Three bodies. Three days. Crack the case with the Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inheritance Games.

After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any tape. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code -- and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes. Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds -- and impossible choices.

My Thoughts: The third book in the Naturals series takes Cassie and the team to Las Vegas where there have been three murders in three days at different casinos. 

What is most baffling is that the methods for each killing are different. It doesn't give profilers Cassie and Dean much to work with. But Sloane who is the numbers and pattern genius on the team figures out that the killer is using a Fibonacci pattern to select the dates and locations for each kill.

Cassie has learned that some bones have been discovered which might be her missing mother's. This adds a lot of tension for Cassie. But she's not the only one under tension. Michael has spent time with his abusive father and is in a downward spiral. Worst of all, Sloane is back in Las Vegas and having to deal with the father who has never acknowledged her or paid any attention to her. 

The team makes a surprising discovery when they connect Cassie's mother's disappearance and the murder of their caretaker Judd's daughter to the killings currently going on in Las Vegas. 

The killer is found, but the mystery deepens in this emotionally charged story. I liked the way the team members each used their strengths to work on the case. I enjoy the banter between the characters in these stories. 

I bought this one August 6, 2025. You can buy your copy here.