When the synopsis of P.C. Cast's Divine by Blood landed in my inbox, I felt I had to take a chance on a story that started out with a woman from a parallel universe being freed from a tree into modern-day Oklahoma. Even though I had not read the first novels in this series, I just had to find out what kind of story could come of that beginning so I picked it up and started reading.

After a lengthy introduction to the history of the Partholon universe, we are introduced to Morrigan Parker, an 18 year-old who feels that she doesn't fit in with the rest of the girls she knows. Raised by her grandparents after her mother died giving birth to her, Morrigan at last finds a place she feels comfortable – the Alabaster Caves, which are filled with dazzling crystals.

One of the things I hate most is coming to a movie after it has already started. I spend precious minutes catching up on the plot and characters, and before I know it, the movie is over and I've missed it all!

I have to admit this was one of my concerns when I picked up Nalini Singh's Caressed by Ice since it is the third installment in her Psy-Changeling Series. Lucky for me and for all you spec fiction readers out there, Ms. Singh does a great job of catching us up and pulling us into the action quickly.

Judd Lauren is the man you want at your back if a bar fight breaks out. He's strong, fast and can melt a person's brains with a single thought. It doesn't hurt that he's incredibly sexy and mysterious too. What a combination!

Though I do not read horror stories on a daily basis, I do occasionally enjoy a good scare. A friend recommended Scarlett Dean's The Academy to me as a decent read, so I decided to put my latest romance novel on the back burner and move over to the dark side.

We meet fourteen-year-old Grant Taylor as he becomes the newest pupil at the Knollwood Academy for boys on account of his carrying a pocketknife into his old high school. True, he had fallen in with a rough lot and made his share of trouble, but expelled? And sent to jail in the form of the Academy? This was just too much.

I've been spending a lot of time in the Regency period and thought I'd try a taste of something new and different. Happy Hour of the Damned certainly fits that description. Thanks to Mark Henry I will never walk into a Starbucks alone again.

Once I managed to pry my copy out of my significant other's hands (yes, he got to it first and would not put it down) I found Happy Hour of the Damned to be a quick witty read that reminded me of a cross between Bridget Jones and The Devil Wears Prada.

I picked up Butterfly House on a whim on a cold January day and was immediately drawn into the story of two people who thought the perfect house was described by an ad that read "musty, dusty, and guaranteed haunted." Okay, T.K. Sheils, you got me. Tell me more.

Sabrina Osterling and Jackson Rutledge couldn't resist a haunted house. That was why they both showed up in the realtor's office at the same time after the ad ran for a supposedly haunted house. But that was the only common thread between them. In truth, they couldn't have been more opposite.

How delightful it is to come across a book that seems to hold hidden treasure. As a reader of many books, I often find the usual formula and conclusion. Being a writer myself, I fully understand the challenges in undertaking an idea and bringing it to fruition. It is not easy and is a labor of love and hate and passion. With the Eyes of Light series, I have found in myself, the reader again.

I am a big fan of the tales of King Arthur, so when I stumbled across a listing for Joan Upton Hall's Arturo el Rey, a tale of a man who may be King Arthur himself returned to life, I had to read it.

Based in a futuristic America that has been devastated by plague and turned into something similar to scenes in the Mad Max movies, Arturo el Rey tells the story of the man who would be king and his lady, Shanna.

I have always loved Science Fiction for the variety of ideas that it brings up, the morality plays, the drama, the humor, and the stretches it provides to dormant brain cells. So it is with enthusiasm I dived into this third and, I am assuming, final installment of the Behold the Eyes Of Light series. I will state honestly, that when I closed the cover digitally for the last time, it was with a sad sigh. I was not ready to leave that place and indeed my writing mind was imagining all sorts of things for the characters I became friends with.

Once upon a time there were arranged marriages. Luckily we don’t have to worry about such things now. At least, those of us who aren't half-alien with mysterious pedigrees don't have to worry about arranged marriages. They bring up all kinds of issues that most contemporary cultures don’t have to worry about. The initial relationship in Forced Mate falls into that category of unavoidable arrangements. In most situations, characters swept into life decisions by powers beyond their control would be thought of as a couple of limp biscuits, ready to crumble at the merest conflict.

Do you find that your reading tastes change over time; that you go from one genre to another like romance to suspense? Or you find a book of a genre that you haven’t read for awhile interests you? I have always been a very eclectic reader; science fiction, fantasy, westerns, mysteries, suspense/thrillers, even true crime/serial killer books. I remember when I received my first paycheck my first book purchase was Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Asimov’s I’ Robot. I have always loved both science fiction and fantasy, even though I have drifted away from both genres in the last couple of years. The blurb for Rachel Caine’s Ill Wind stirred up that love of both sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Birth
Rebirth
Renewal
Redemption

Starting over from nothing. Sounds scary. It may be but it can also be the perfect cure for the common ills of a society. Not that I would want to see this happen with humanity. We'd only make the same mistakes over again and who has the time for that? One man has seen the benefit of this and has incorporated it into the saga of the Aethereal. Æthereal's Pride is the product of a fresh beginning and throughout it's pages it has attained each of the aforementioned stages.

Many readers like stories about the highly erotic and forever depressed, beautiful, non-aging beings called vampires, and I am no exception. I have read and reviewed many such books, and, in my opinion, Eugie Foster's vampire stories have everything a good vampire story needs to have.

The 2-in-1 flipbook Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart contains two excellent vampire stories. The first one, Inspirations End tells the story of a young rock musician's love affair with a female vamire, Cybele, who becomes both a muse and a curse for the passionate young genius. This story is erotic, full of passion, and is also very intriguing because it introduces a new type of vampire.

When I start reading a science fiction story, I expect it to lead me to a world with new technologies and to exceptional characters who dare to face the unknown and are able to cope with the unexpected. The main characters in Steve Lazarowitz's short novel, Confronting The Void must do exactly that, gaining experiences previously unknown to human beings along the way.

The most important character in the story is Major Jack McDaniels, a psychologist who is taken away from his home by secret agents without any explanation, without even a chance to talk to his wife before leaving. He is sent to a human colony on the Moon to find a friend who does not want to be found. He is expected to find him using the psychic bond they used to share, and he has no other option than to try. Jack finds out that his friend, Brandon Alexander is one of the survivors of a top-secret experiment, testing a new spaceship drive. After entering the mysterious Void, the crew's behavior altered radically, and the government wants Jack to find out why.

If an author creates a world you like very much, you are always a bit afraid before starting to read the next installment. Will she be able to live up to your expectations?
What more can be added to such a well-described world? These are the questions you ask, even though you can hardly wait to start the next book. This is probably also what the fans of Karen Koehler's Slayer series will be asking, but, in her case, there's no need to worry about that. In The Blackburn & Scarletti Mysteries, Volume I, she takes world-building to another level, to a level where completely new characters can be introduced, and the two main characters investigate events that are unrelated to those described in the earlier books.

Reading heroic fantasy allows you to enter other worlds and identify with special heroes. Some live by the sword, others are crafted in magic. Some heroes defeat tyrants, find love, and face creatures that are seemingly unbeatable. If the stories are well-written, they will leave you amazed, just as the stories in Lords of Swords do.

Lords of Swords contains thirteen stories, mostly by some of the world's most popular and highly acclaimed writers. First I have to mention Tanith Lee's sad and uplifting masterpiece, "The Woman in Scarlet," which is the story of a magic sword and its relationship with its owner.