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So, I read through this. Twice. And I just don't know what to make of it! A six-year-old girl, Penny, is in trouble - she was kidnapped by some really Bad people and now she won't wake up. Doctors don't seem to be able to help her, but a strange little dude appears out of nowhere and now Penny's parents, Duncan and Sam are going to jump into Penny's dreams to combat the forces that are still holding her. Yeah. That's kinda the story. So now 100 pages of bizarro action as Duncan and Sam fight strange dream creatures to save Penny. In case you can't tell by my description, this didn't make much of a positive impact on me. I didn't hate it - I actually kind of like dreamworld and bizarre circumstances - but it didn't hook me. The need to save their child is a pretty commonly used device to draw a quick sympathy response. It also uses some fairly standard gimmicks such as having a teddy bear actually be a gruff talking badass. Who saw that coming? Th...

Walt Longmire, the tough-as-nails Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, is hard at work, but this timeout of his own territory. A cousin to Walt's late wife reaches out to Walt for some help. The distant relative is a postal official in Colorado and one of his carriers, a woman who delivers in remote areas, has gone missing. Her vehicle has been found but no one has seen or heard from the woman. Loyal to worthy family, Walt goes undercover and discovers much more nefarious at play. The missing mail carrier's route took her within range of a cult compound. The charismatic leader of the cult, a former wannabe actor, is looking to protect his domain and the elderly folks who've taken up to following him, and Walt makes friends with someone close to the cult leader and who also has reason to dislike them.  Walt takes on the cult with his usual diplomacy (his sidearm). This isn't the best of the Longmire novels, but it's fun, lets us see Walt in a new light (away from the...

When Abigail moves to Soap Lake, Washington with her husband for his new job, she imagines it will be a mini version of Seattle, with craft beers on tap, super friendly neighbors, and a tourist gimmick (in this case, the world's largest lava lamp). But when, just after moving, her husband is sent to Poland on a research trip, Abigail experiences a Soap Lake that most who've spent their entire lives in town would never anticipate. Out of the desert that abuts the town runs a young boy, straight into Abigail's arms. The boy's mother, Esme, has only recently returned home to Soap Lake, and has been murdered. Abigail enlists a few locals to help her look into this - not surprisingly, those willing to work with the new person in town are a bit 'off' themselves. What Abigail discovers is that Soap Lake has a few skeletons in its history. Esme's is not the first murder in the area and this history goes back aways and conceals an even bigger civil matter. My ARC for...

Twelve year old Ciara discovers a book of magic spells. The very first page warns the reader to STOP, don't read any further, and under no circumstances should anyone perform any of the spells (because spells are very dangerous, especially when you don't know what you're doing). But when you're twelve year old, OF COURSE you want to read on and read a spell or two out loud (effectively 'performing' the spell). When Ciara reads a spell she calls forth a dragon. Yup, a fire-breathing, honest-to-god Dragon! Named Scorch. Who has a bit of attitude about being called by a little girl with no magic experience. But for all his gruffness, Scorch is a bit of a softy inside, and even though he's really old he and Ciara teach each other a lot about a lot of things. While Ciara is initially frightened by the appearance of a dragon, her personality is such that she stands up to him and pushes back when he acts all cranky. Scorch is reminded of the last time he was called...

What happens when a vampire confronts a minister in the American West of 1912? Confession. Discovered in a wall is a journal of a Lutheran pastor who detailed his encounters with a man who'd once been known as Good Stab, of the Blackfeet Nation. In great detail, the pastor recounts Good Stab's story in his own language. At first this is out of surprise and curiosity, but as the pastor begins to believe and understand that Good Stab is not telling some embellished story of a warrior coming of age. He really is struggling with what he has become and the pastor has sympathy for his unusual transformation. But as the days go by, the white man learns to fear Good Stab. He knows his power and his anger at what has been done to his people - and now Good Stab is able to fight back. I've not read anything by Stephen Graham Jones prior to this, but I'd been hearing and reading about the author in general and this book in particular. Typically, I'm not a fan of the epistolary ...

400+ years in the future humans have split in two primary factions - those who have adapted for space travel using cybernetic augments to the body, and those who used genetic manipulation to have the body adapt to the devasting climate change. There's a virus that's decimating the earth-bound humans and despite the advancements in technology, they can't find the missing element to create a  cure. Extinction may be the result. They need more humans and human DNA that is not infected and they need the space-bound humans to return to earth but the two factions are not friendly to each other. I've read some pretty exciting sci-fi graphic novels recently and I was looking forward to this - the concept is fantastic and the cover promises some stunning comic art. And both of these things hold true through the book. I like when the stakes are high, creating a conflict that really means something. The possible eradication of an entire species means something. Story-wise, very st...

Secret Staircase Construction is doing well and Tempest Raj is enjoying the success of the family-owned business. Their latest project is transforming a home into a public library which aims to celebrate the detectives of literature. Although the work isn't complete, the home's owner is looking to celebrate by hosting a murder-mystery dinner complete with a mystery drama. But during a rehearsal one of the actors is murdered and then the body disappears. The leading suspect would almost have to be a magician to pull this off, and as it happens, the police's leading suspect if Tempest's friend, Sanjay. But Tempest knows Sanjay and knows he couldn't have done it, so she and her friends, Ivy and Gideon who work for the construction company, and Sanjay, are off to solve an impossible, locked room mystery. While I'm not generally a fan of cozy mysteries, Gigi Pandian's work would be one of my exceptions. I'll not only read any of her works, I look forward to t...

Emmeline "Emme" Helliwell is a special agent with the National Park Service. She has returned to her Utah hometown to grieve and recover after the death of her mother and regain her composure and confidence after a failure from a recent mission. When a body turns up in the Narrows of Zion National Park, Emme is called in to investigate. Her investigation is personal as the body is of a childhood friend, someone who knew the Park very well. Emme is convinced that he didn't die as a result of an accident and begins an earnest investigation. As she digs deeper into the case, it becomes apparent that a dangerous religious cult may be involved - the same cult Emme had been investigating before coming to Utah, which ended in failure. Just as the case heats up and gets more intense, Emme's relationship with her sister, Addie, gets more strained. They've been estranged and Emme still resents that she had to take care of all their mother's belongings and then the funer...

Beach noir stories. Beach. Noir. Fiction. I can't help but be amazed at how specific the theme for this book is. Yet of course it was appealing enough that I chose to read it. Like nearly every anthology I've ever read, there were a few stories that I especially liked, a story or two that fell quite short for me, and a lot that were just fine but probably not very memorable.  There really wasn't anything that stood out to make me wonder why it was included. The very first story, "The Seven Seals" by Francesca Lia Block might have been my least favorite in the collection. It worried me that I might be in for a tough time. I think that Ms. Block's style and my reading tastes don't mix particularly well. Fortunately, the next story, "A Tawny Brown Liveaboard" by Bev Vincent, alleviated some of my concerns as I quite enjoyed the story. While I'm not familiar with Bev Vincent or her character, Travis McGee, I'm very interested in reader more. ...

It's been a minute since I read Stephen King's The Stand and I know I've probably forgotten more than I remember from the book, but I haven't forgotten the feelings I had during the reading and when I'd finished it. Awe, fear, exhaustion, and the realization I'd read something 'very special' (I would have read the book club edition in 1978 or 1979). I have not re-read (or, simply, 'read') the 1990 unabridged edition, but after reading these short stories set in King's post-apocalyptic world, I've put it on my TBR list. For this book, editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene have done an amazing job collecting stories from a wide range or authors who have presented us with an incredible array of stories in King's world. At 800 pages, they've nearly equaled King's book. The collection is divided into four parts: Part One: Down with the Sickness Part Two: The Long Walk Part Three: Life Was Such a Wheel Part Four: Other Worlds ...

Lily Wong, of Chinese and Norwegian ancestry, is a modern day ninja, having trained in a variety of martial arts. After her sister was raped and murdered, Lily dedicated herself to protecting women to the best of her ability. Whether fighting members of the Ukrainian mob or taking on sex traffickers, Lily has the skill to be successful. Her biggest challenge is in keeping her activities from her parents. It's hard for Lily to avoid her parents as she lives above the Chinese restaurant her Norwegian father owns, and Lily's Chinese mom is already disappointed that her daughter is less than feminine, studying the martial arts. It's hard to predict what they might think or do if they knew she'd recently been bound and was within minutes of being killed before fighting her way out (leaving a body behind). But one of her biggest challenges comes after she recently escorted a woman and her son to a safe shelter only to have them return home to a dangerous situation. Suspecting...