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He was an army scout, and outlaw, a hero, and a legend. Has-kay-bay-nay-ntayl - aka Ohyessonna, aka Apache Kid - grew up the product of two very different cultures. He worked, through his own great efforts, to be a respected leader in both his Apaches and his white, military communities.  As an Apache he has to compete with a brother to be the best among his community, and even though the odds are against him, he keeps calm and proves the victor. His skills are unparalleled for a boy his age and the legendary Al Sieber of the white military takes him under his wing and trains him so that the boy is even stronger and better than his natural skills. The Apache Kid has great respect for what Sieber does for him and he becomes a scout - one of the greatest scouts of all time - for the U.S. Army.  The Apache Kid becomes a leader of Army scouts and it is through his work that the Army maintains peace between the Apache and the San Carlos Reservation. But blood is thicker than unifor...

It is 1966 and three women - Beverley, Elsie, and Margot - have formed an unlikely social group in Southern California. They are the wives (or ex-wives) of three of California's most notorious serial killers of their day. Their individual personalities couldn't be more different - from compulsive Beverly trying to control everything around her, to the beautiful Margot putting all her effort into trying to appear as though everything is fine, to Elsie who fights to make a name for herself among the testosterone-filled newsroom.  But each fights daily with their own (and others') perception of 'how could they not have known?' They carry a guilt that no one should ever have to be burdened with. They meet often - a therapeutic group that few would understand - when news hits Southern California of a new string of murders which they women see as definitely linked and pointing to a new serial killer. The police, on the other hand, are focused on pinning some of the murder...

Selene was orphaned as a child and subsequently taken in by the caretaker of the L'Opera du Magician. Here she is encouraged to develop her own magical talents. There is much talk that one of the students will be selected by the king to be the new king's mage. The selection of the new mage will be chosen through competition, each student of magic will show what they can accomplish by putting together a performance of song, dance, and magic - creating a magical, entertaining illusion. Selene doubts her own abilities among the many talented students, but finds help (and unrequited passion) in a mysterious figure - a magician, trapped inside a mirror inside the opera. I actually started to read this book a few months ago, but I had also just started Wild as the Stars by Kerry Chaput which, rather ironically, has extremely similar themes and story line, so I put this one away for a bit, though honestly, much of the previous mentioned book came back to me as I read this and I had t...

I don't typically review a series of books in one posted review, but for a couple of reasons, mainly because these books are so short, I've decided to review the entire trilogy in one, three-part review. Yuri Kozlov is a well-known spy (well-known among the spy organizations worldwide, anyway) as is sometimes known as the “Russian James Bond.” Lately there have been a number of Russian spies defecting to the West over what they consider to be Putin's unjust war against Ukraine. But no one - not from the West, nor from Russia - ever expected someone of Kozlov's renown and status to be among the defectors! Yuri is not impressed with the people from the CIA who've been assigned to be his handlers and he's convinced it'll be a cakewalk convincing them of his sincerity. Of course he's actually on a deep, undercover assignment to find out who in the Russian spy service is the double agent reporting back to the CIA, and to find and kill the highest level agent ...

Ophelia is a very smart and scientifically-minded eleven-year-old girl. After the death of her mother, Ophelia and her older sister have come along with their father to a new city (where it never stops snowing). Their father has thrown himself into his work at his new job. He is an expert on swords and is putting together a very large exhibition of swords in an old, dark, gloomy museum. Ophelia's sister is preoccupied with fashion and has found a like-minded friend in the museum curator, and her father is busy playing with his swords, leaving nothing for Ophelia to do, so she begins to wander and explore all the nooks and crannies of the museum. Finding a locked door somewhere deep in the museum, Ophelia looks through the keyhole and sees the blue eyes of a young boy looking back at her. He is the Marvelous Boy and he tells Ophelia that he's been waiting for her. Although he looks about the same age as Ophelia, he explains that he's actually 303 years old and that he's ...

The city of Chicago has gone through a lot, recently - having nearly been completely destroyed. But the wizard Harry Dresden has been through even more, being the man who practically single-handedly saved (most of) Chicago but lost a number of good friends in the fight. It's taken a toll, but the process of recovery and cleaning up needs to be done (as well as 'charming' all the citizens of Chicago so that they don't know there are so many ... ah ... paranormals ... in their midst). What Harry Dresden definitely, no way, not all, doesn't have time for, is the ghouls who are prowling the city and killing civilians. And just to complicate matters - because Harry needs complication in his life, the Winter Queen has allied with the vampires and Harry's been betrothed to the deadly vampire Lara Raith in order to seal the deal. This doesn't sit well with everyone and one particularly nasty and powerful 'baddy' is going to test Harry's mettle, but after...