Book Review: Marriage 101

Marriage 101 by Deborah Shelley

Description: Rachel Levin is the new teacher on the block. And she is teaching the one class that the students are known to hate - marriage! She doesn't have a relationship currently but believes she knows what you need to know in order to make them work.

Enter Danny Riccuci. Danny has grown up in a family where everyone is divorced. He believes he carries the divorce gene. So the last thing he wants is a relationship - especially with someone who believes they can make marriage work no matter what. But when he realizes he is drawn to Rachel he starts to wonder - can he make marriage work?


Thoughts: What a fun premise. Imagine you think you know everything about relationships and want to teach it to high school kids. They of course resent the idea that a single teacher who is new to the school is making them pair up with others that they just don't like. So when the schools coach can't help himself and takes a bet to be your "spouse" it smooths the transition for you with your teaching.

I just really liked it. It wasn't the book I thought it would be based on the cover. (I am not used to short romance novels in hardcover etc.) And I think that in this case I was judging the book by the cover. But I picked it up anyways and am glad I did. It is a quick fun read and I loved all the characters. I would definitely recommend it.

What genre would you consider this?
Romance

Overall:

Book Review: Fade

Fade by Lisa McMann

Description: If Janie is around someone she can see their dreams. That has led her to her best friend and boyfriend Cabel. Cabel works for the police department undercover and Janie has begun that work as well.

The police need Janie and Cabel to figure out why they were getting calls about a teacher possibly drugging a student. This is dangerous for them both. Can they figure it out before anyone else is hurt? What does Janie's abilities mean for her future?

Thoughts: This book started out a little slow for me. When I first picked it up I was thinking how much I liked the last book. When I got started on this one - I just didn't remember what it was. But eventually it did progress to the part where I remembered what I liked and liked this one as well.

The best part of this book though is the digging in to what being a dreamcatcher is. What are the good things and what are the bad. They are answered and it makes you wonder if Janie is strong enough to deal with those things. Sometimes to help others means bad things for yourself.

What genre would you consider this?
Teen

Overall:

Book Feature: Hollywood is Like High School With Money

By Zoey Dean
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: July 2009
Pages: 278
Price: $13.99
Description:Taylor Henning thinks she finally has everything she wants. She is an assistant at a major movie studio. Quickly she realizes there is a lot more to the business (a lot more cattiness that is). How is Taylor supposed to fit into this Hollywood lifestyle?

She meets her boss's daughter Quinn and realizes that there may be someone who can help her. Quinn is the queen of her high school and maybe she can teach Taylor how to be queen bee too. But is that what Taylor really wants?

Book Review: Long Lost

Long Lost by Harlan Coben
Description: Myron had a fling with Terese years ago. So imagine his surprise when she calls him and tells him that she needs his help and that he needs to come to Paris. Before you know it he is there and they have been thrown into a world of intrigue. Terese's husband is dead. Others are turning up dead around every corner and bad guys can't wait to get their hands on them (and neither can the authorities). Can they figure out what is going on soon enough?

Thoughts: The thing I like about Harlan Coben's books is when you think you know what way the story is going - it goes in another direction. This book does that as well. The only thing for me that I didn't really like was the mobsters and crazy things that are thrown in to complete the story. It isn't that it makes it a bad story - it is just a lot to take.

I don't want to ruin the ending for anyone so I will be vague - but the ending is hard to take as well. Can anyone truly be uncaring. Can you grow up in an environment that teaches you that kind of hate. sometimes I think we want to think that so we can justify the bad that some do. But for me that wasn't something that made me walk away happy with how things ended.

What genre would you consider this?
Thriller/Mystery

Overall:

The Well-Read Commuter Reviews Losing Mum and Pup Christopher Buckley

The Well-Read Commuter Reviews Losing Mum and Pup
Christopher Buckley

What this book is about: In twelve months author Christopher Buckley coped with the passing of his father, William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, and his mother, Patricia Taylor Buckley, one of New York’s most glamorous and colorful socialites. He was their only child and their relationship was close and complicated.

Did you like this book: Anyone who was a Political Science major in college in the 90's likely did not get out of school without reading writings from both William F and Christopher Buckley and we were all the better for it. Had I not thoroughly enjoyed the early 90's release of Thank You For Smoking, Christopher Buckley’s story of the Tobacco Lobby’s heyday, I likely would not have picked up this book I am glad I did though, it was a strange poetic journey of the year Buckley lost both his mom and dad. The book twists its way through life, death, hospitals, funeral homes and everything in between. Comedy and tragedy tenderly intertwine in this thoughtful and strangely uplifting work of nonfiction.

PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the World

Burn This Book
PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the World
Edited by Toni Morrison
Published by HarperStudio
May 2009; $16.99 US; 978-0-06-177400-3

BURN THIS BOOK was born out of a speech last April that Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison gave at the PEN International Festival dinner. Morrison observed that night, "A writer's life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity." As she paid tribute to the difficulties and challenges writers face in many parts of the world, she also reflected on the steep price we all pay when voices are silenced. This powerful, incantatory talk sparked a notion for a book of essays that would explore the issue and impact of censorship in the world.

Published in conjunction with the PEN American Center, Toni Morrison's speech now opens this collection of extraordinary voices from around the world: John Updike (in one of his final pieces), David Grossman, Francine Prose, Pico Iyer, Russell Banks, Paul Auster, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Ed Park, and Nadine Gordimer. The writers represent Nobel and other prize winners and they include writers who have had first-hand experience of censorship and its consequences.

Why protect free speech? What is the power of the word? The approaches they all take to these questions are as varied as their works of literature. Here, the personal and the political mingle and collide; philosophical reflection is partnered with the conundrums of experience. Across the pages there is a rush of ideas, emotions and perspectives that disallow assumptions to stand or acquiesce to any force, whether external or internal.

About the Editor:
Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is the author of many novels, including, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and most recently, A Mercy. She has also received the national Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction.

About PEN:
PEN is the leading voice for literature and a major force for free expression and the unhampered exchange of ideas and opinions worldwide. Founded in 1921, it is the world's oldest ongoing human rights organization, and it currently has 144 PEN centers in 102 countries dedicated to protecting the right of all humanity to create and communicate freely. By mobilizing the world's most influential literary voiced and an international network of writers, readers, and human rights supporters, PEN makes a difference every day in the lives of writers who are facing persecution around the world. For more information about PEN, visit www.pen.org

For more information please visit http://theharperstudio.com/authorsandbooks/burnthisbook/

Book Feature: Dial Emmy for Murder

By Eileen Davidson
Publisher: Obsidian
Publication Date: June 2009
Pages: 294
Price: $6.99
Description: Alexis Peterson is ready to move on to another soap. And her fans can't believe it. But there is already a lot going on in Alexis's life - she is going to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmy Awards. But during what should be a great honor in her life she is dragged into a mystery when a copresenter loses his life. Can Alex find out (with the help of Detective Frank Janks) who the murder really is?

Book Review: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Description:Laurel Grey Hawthorn has everything she wanted out of life. She has a husband who loves her (I mean who cares that he spends most of his time closeted away in the basement working) and a daughter who is happy and healthy. Laurel has done a lot to move past her own growing up experiences and is finally at a happy place.

Laurel hasn't told her husband everything. She sees dead people. When she is woken up from a deep sleep only to find a dead teen leading her to her body in the Laurel's pool. Laurel is forced to ask her sister for help. Laurel believes that she her sister is stronger than her in so many ways. Thalia is different then her but she has her own ideas on what is right and wrong. Can they face their past and their fears before anything else bad happens in their lives?

Thoughts:Isn't it amazing how the things that you experienced cloud your judgment or make you believe that something is a certain way when it isn't? How we can live in our own little isolated world thinking that we are interacting and seeing how things truly are - but then someone enters that world and throws things for a loop. You realize that some of the things you believed are not even close to being true.

How you can be someone who wants to open someones eyes to what is going on around them - but what really you are doing is projecting your own thoughts and feelings on the situation into their lives.

For me this book was a bit of an eye opener in terms of how we all do things like that. We believe the worst in people based on our own experiences. We believe the best in people for the same reasons. We try to protect those around us from the evils that we think might be out to get them. Only they can really know what is going on in their lives and how it affects them and makes them feel.

The other theme for me in this book is embracing your past - where you come from. Good or bad it shapes who we are. Returning and confronting that past can only help you.

I definitely enjoyed this book and thought it was a great summer read.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

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The Well-Read Commuter Reviews She’s Out There! Essays by 35 Young Women Who Aspire to Lead the Nation

She’s Out There! Essays by 35 Young Women Who Aspire to Lead the Nation

By: Amy Sewell, Heather Ogilvie


What this book is about:
It is no longer a question of if or when we will have a female President, it is a question of who it will be. In She's Out There! Amy Sewell and Heather Ogilvie present a collection of essays from thirty-five young women under the age of thirty-five who aspire to become the leader of the Free World. The book also contains inspiring quotes from current women leaders around the world and fascinating information about the causes they support. The goal is to inspire young women across the country to break the glass ceiling in every walk of life.

This book was a homerun, no doubt. I think that it appeals on many levels and I found it an interesting commentary on the exciting times that lay ahead of us. We live in a Country where the rights of women are not guaranteed in the US Constitution (we take for granted that someone, somewhere went back and added us skirts in there, they didn’t) and there are currently only 104 women currently serving as US Governors, Congresswomen, Senators and Presidential Cabinet Members. Do the math. Women make up fifty percent of the population and there are 50 Governors, 438 members of Congress, 100 Senators and about 12 Cabinet members. That means only seventeen percent of these top positions and public offices are held by women. Other countries routinely out stride us in the numbers of females in public office and public leadership roles. However, like a rose in the desert, this book focuses on some of the amazing women who walk among us and who will likely be the next generation of female leaders. This book is an obvious choice as an extra special gift for any female graduate. Use the book as a holder for the card envelope, though. I am sure in this economy the graduate will still want the money.

Book Review: Lovestruck Summer

Lovestruck Summer By Melissa Walker
Description:Priscilla "Quinn" likes being the alternate girl. She thrives being the girl with the blue short hair that loves bands and alternative music. When an opportunity comes up to go work for her favorite bands music label she jumps on it. Even if she is only 18 years old. So off she goes to Texas to live with her cousin "Party Penny". Penny is everything that Quinn hates - pink, bubbly, and a sorority girl. When Quinn meets the guy of her dreams - Sebastian she thinks her summer is made. But why can she not stop thinking about her cousin's friend Russ.

Russ is exactly what Quinn thinks she doesn't want. I mean he likes country music. Can Quinn get past her own reservations and preconceived notions about what people are like? Will that help her really enjoy her summer?

Thoughts: What can I say - I love Melissa Walker. I loved all of her Violet books (Violet in Private, Violet by Design, and Violet on the Runway). Melissa has been kind enough to stop by a Blog of Books and give both an interview and guest post. And based on the response that I have gotten - more people then just me love her.

For me this was a classic Melissa Walker book. Lighthearted and fun but with a lesson in it that isn't preachy. Do we sometimes get so focused on who we want to be (or think we should be) that we start to close ourselves off to new experiences and people? Add to that a romance with a couple boys and a girls first adventure out on her own and you have a great entertaining book. While I know it is geared towards the 14 year old (and up) set - for me this book is something anyone who likes teen lit - would like.

I look forward to reading more of Melissa Walker in the future!

What genre would you consider this?
Teen Romance

Overall:

Book Review: Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper

Description: Jane Jameson was just a normal librarian when she loses her job and ends up at a bar drowning her sorrows in alcohol. She meets a very nice man and thinks things might be looking up for her. When she wakes up, she finds out she has died and become a vampire.

Imagine how strange it is to one day be human and the next to be an unemployed vampire who is being greated by the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee. It would be an adjustment for anyone. Add to that the complication of telling her family (with her quite needy mother she knows that won't be easy) and Jane doesn't know what to do.

Thankfully the man who turned her and who she is attracted to is there to help. But is he really trying to do what is best for her? Why does it seem as if someone is out to get her? I mean all those accidents can't be random can they? Can Jane figure out what is really going on before someone gets hurt?

Thoughts: I am seeing more and more of these books come out. Or maybe I am just finding them. And what I mean by that is books that are less romance and more of series of books that surround a person and their lives. Of course there usually is a romantic interest (or two) but the focus is less on that and more about the mysteries they solve, the people in their lives, or the crazy twist that makes them interesting (i.e. they are witches, vampires, detectives etc).

This one is one of those that I liked a lot. The great aunt ghost who only Jane can see is a great foil for the mother who wants nothing more then herself to be pleased. Jane is a likeable character with a best friend who is willing to deal with the fact that she has now turned into a vampire (he is even willing to find his own girlfriend who isn't considered normal). It will be fun to see how they all progress and what being a vampire will mean for them.

What genre would you consider this?
Paranormal

Overall:

Book Reveiw: Devil of the Highlands

Devil of the Highlands by Lynsay Sands

Description:Evelinde has been forced to live with her evil step mother ever since her father died and her brother went off to war. So she is wary when she finds out she is to marry Cullen, Laird of Donnachaidh. He has a reputation for being a killer. But when Evelinde meets Cullen she realizes there is no way that the man in front of her would kill those in his family.

Off Evelinde goes to Scotland, where she is ready to embrace the clan as Cullen's wife. But as soon as she gets there she can't help but stick her nose in just about everything - especially the truth of the rumors surrounding her husband. This may put her in danger. Can she and her husband figure out what their true feelings for each other are - before someone tears them apart?

Thoughts: This is a really good historical romance. I have loved Lynsay Sands since I started reading her vampire books and her historical's also have the great story telling we all love.

What genre would you consider this?
Historical Romance

Overall:

Book Feature: Blood Bar

By Norm Applegate
Publisher: Black Bed Sheet Book
Publication Date: January 2009
Pages: 305
Price: $14.00
Description: Kim Bennett (who is featured in Applegate's other books as well) is a woman who is sure of herself. She is a madame who is into the S&M game and has recently delved into solving murders. When an acquaintance calls her and asks her to help because her lover - a vampire - was murdered, Kim runs to her side.

This takes her on an adventure that has Kim (and many others) looking for this vampire book - The Black Testament. The Black Testament was supposedly written by Jack the Ripper and has all sort of secrets in it. As far as Kim is concerned vampires don't really exist. So this is all some weird story. But as she gets deeper into the world Kim has to start to wonder. Maybe they do exist.

Book Feature: Lovestruck Summer

By Melissa Walker
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 266
Price: $5.99
Description: Priscilla "Quinn" likes being the alternate girl. She thrives being the girl with the blue short hair that loves bands and alternative music. When an opportunity comes up to go work for her favorite bands music label she jumps on it. Even if she is only 18 years old. So off she goes to Texas to live with her cousin "Party Penny". Penny is everything that Quinn hates - pink, bubbly, and a sorority girl. When Quinn meets the guy of her dreams - Sebastian she thinks her summer is made. But why can she not stop thinking about her cousin's friend Russ.

Book Review: The Edge of Desire

The Edge of Desire by Stephanie Laurens
Description:Christian Allardyce the 6th Marquess of Dearne loved Lady Letitia Randall and expected to marry her. When he leaves for war and she doesn't hear from him - she marries another. he just doesn't understand.

So when Letitia comes to Christian for help he is definitely wondering what he can get out of her. What Christian doesn't know is the circumstances of Letitia's marriage and that she blames him for leaving her to serve his country when she needed him most. This is his chance to redeem himself. Can he find out who really murdered Letitia's husband so that her brother is not blamed for the crime? What will Letitia owe him when he does so?

Thoughts: In terms of Stephanie Lauren books - I love her Cynster novels so much more than her Bastien Club novels. Maybe it is the idea of a devil may care family or the war talk that is much found in her Bastien Club novels - but the Cynster ones just appeal to me more. Saying that though - this series is worth reading.

I am ready for the last book in the Bastien Club series (as far as I can tell) the one that is about the mysterious Dalziel. The one that all the women seem to know and the men just can't find out what his past truely is.

What genre would you consider this?
Historical Romance

Overall:

Book Review: Sunset Bay

Sunset Bay by Susan Mallery

Description: Megan has it all. A father who dotes on her. A wonderful cardiologist fiance. A great successful job. Then one day things start to fall apart. The men in her life which were her backbone start to disappoint her and she just doesn't know if she can recover. Add to that a mother who is incredibly needy and a sister who seems to never be there for her (or could that be more of Megan's portrayal then the truth)?

Megan has great friends though and they are going to help her through it all. When bad boy Travis reenters her life she can't help but be attracted to him just like she was when she was a teen. Many bad things have happened to Travis and he isn't the nice guy that she thought he was back then - or is he? He has returned and there is more to him then meets the eye.

Thoughts: One of my favorite things about Susan Mallery books is her insite not only into people's romantic relationships but their relationships with their families. Many times her book is as much about the bonds between sisterhood or with their parents as it is about finding the person you are meant to be with. For me that was especially true in this book.

In some ways this book is about Megan finding herself and doing what she wants with her life - not so much about the romance between her and Travis. The romance is still a big part of things - but less so then the other things that are going on in her life - job, marriage, family etc.

I hope there are more in this series and we can see even more of Megan in the future.

What genre would you consider this?
Romance

Overall:

The Well-Read Commuter Reviews Love Equals Sacrifice

The Well-Read Commuter Reviews Love Equals Sacrifice
By: Michael Stidham

What this book is about: As a Certified Public Accountant, Michael Stidham dealt with numbers most of his career. Alzheimer's was just another passing word he heard on television. Little did he know that one word would become a focal point in his life. So began his journey back to the Catholic Faith and the realization that Love Equals Sacrifice.

Did you like this book: With Alzheimer’s set to ravage the Baby Boomer generation, I think voices of unpaid family caregivers, such as Stidham, will be of great importance and comfort to those that seek to fill the role of family caregiver. I think this was an interesting book because it was from the perspective of a male caregiver’s point of view. Many books of these sorts deal with the perspective of a female caregiver. Stidham also did not delve extensively into the back story of his family before the disease, but rather stuck to the nuts and bolts of his routine as a caregiver and his journey back to his faith. I thought there were several points in the book that Stidham really could have elaborated more so that it was not so matter of fact, but overall an interesting and short read.

Book Feature: The Corinthian

Author: Georgette Heyer
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: Original 1940 - Republished 2009
Price $13.99
Pages: 261
Description: Penelope Creed will do anything to stop the marriage she is being forced into. Even if it means dressing as a boy and running from London. On her way she meets Sir Richard Wyndham. Sir Richard knows he can't let Penelope run around the countryside on her own - so he offers to be her protector. What happens when he can't escape her love?

Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight

Book Review: The Vampire's Bride

The Vampire's Bride by Gena Showalter
Description: The King of the Vampires, Layel has been on a mission to destroy all vampires ever since the death of his soul mate and wife. They killed her in a brutal fashion and he will make sure every last dragon pays.

In a battle he meets Amazonian woman Delilah. Delilah has a past with men who don't follow through and while she can't help but be attracted to Layel she knows that her focus should be on herself and the other women in her Amazonian tribe.

When the God's focus on Atlantis it means trouble for all of them. And many creatures are swept away into a game that could mean death for all of them. Can Layel get over his idea that there was only one woman for him - even if that woman is dead? Can Delilah start to trust a man - especially a vampire one? Can they escape with their lives?

Thoughts: This was my first 'Tale of Atlantis' book. It was quite interesting and different. I loved the different creatures. While this book took us far from Atlantis for much of it - it makes me think that I should try out some of the other books!

I love that Layel is as true to his dead wife as he can be. That he realizes loving someone else just means letting go a little - it doesn't in any way make his relationship with her any less special or important to him. Especially after hundreds of years.

Delilah is a strong charecter who doesn't need a man. Yes, she likes that she has found someone who can maybe show her up once in a while. But he is so much more than that.

What genre would you consider this?
Paranormal Romance

Overall:

Win a copy of JULIE AND JULIA

Win a copy of the Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Same rules apply as usual - Please comment below if you are interested. Be sure to include some way for me to contact you (if I can't find you I can't get you the book). Five people will be drawn at random on July 9th so enter now!

This contest is eligible to those 18 years of age that are residents of the US and Canada. We will not be able to mail to P.O. Boxes. One entry per person.

All entries are due by July 9th - so enter now!

Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film version is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

Win a copy of THE IMPOSTOR'S DAUGHTER

Win a copy of the Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

Same rules apply as usual - Please comment below if you are interested. Be sure to include some way for me to contact you (if I can't find you I can't get you the book). Five people will be drawn at random on July 15th so enter now!

This contest is eligible to those 18 years of age that are residents of the US and Canada. We will not be able to mail to P.O. Boxes. One entry per person.

All entries are due by July 15th - so enter now!

Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict). Later, she lucks into the perfect job--interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is--not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them--herself.

Book Review: Night Shadow

Night Shadow by Cherry Adair

Description:Two special agents in the T-FLAC - Lexi Stone and Alex Stone, have a lot in common. Besides their name they both are part of a special unit that helps people. Alex is a wizard who has powers that include teleportation. Lexi on the other hand is a data cruncher who is excited about finally having her chance at the action. Add to that is their attraction to one another.

What Lexi and Alex don't know is that the people they are saving are being targeted by a mad man who has been planning this adventure for years. If they don't figure out what is going on their lives could be in danger too.


Thoughts: This was my first "Night" novel and it took me a little while to figure out this wasn't just some other special crime unit novel with a romance. There are wizards and genetics and other things going on. Once I got in to the story and realized what was going on - I did enjoy it and think I may pick up the other Night novels sometime in the near future.

I think as long as you go in to it knowing a little more about what it is about you will find that this book meets all expectations in a contemporary romance.

What genre would you consider this?
Paranormal Contemporary Romance

Overall:

Book Review: The Shadow Queen

The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop

Description: The people in Dena Nehele have been devastated by many bad Queens who have only been interested in what was good for them. They now need a Queen who knows how to do things properly and the war that has been going on there for decades has removed all of those.

So away they go to the Shadow Realm and ask for help. There Lady Cassidy, a Queen without a court, has been waiting for her place in life. She isn't the most beautiful or the most powerful but going to Dena Nehele may be the best thing for her and for the people there. If she agrees to go and be their Queen she will have to stand firm in what she believes in. Deal with a man who wants her so badly and yet has been abused in the past and isn't quite what she is used to. Can she do it?


Thoughts: Lately I have been reading quite a few books that when I got into them I enjoyed them. I don't know if Anne Bishop plans on writing another book that has to do with Dene Nahale or if this was a single book in the larger Black Jewels series but I enjoyed it and would but my vote in for another book.

Cassidy is a strong queen who has done what she needs to for the people (and solved some mysteries in the process). She may not have all the power but she does have willpower and a strong knowledge of what is right. It would also be fun to see how Gray progresses. At first he is a man child who has been hurt so badly he can't age. But upon meeting Cassidy he begins his progression into the man that he could be. We don't get to see this finished progression and it would be great to see where he goes from here.

The Black Jewel books can be a little confusing (which is why the needed glossary in the front is a life saver) but at the same time I think there is so much good stuff and imagination going on there in this complicated world - that it is worth spending the time to figure it out.

What genre would you consider this?
Paranormal/Fantasy

Overall: