110:31 The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon Green

The 12th book in the Nightside series.  It's the night before John and Suzie's wedding and John wants one last case as a PI.  Nothing too exciting, nothing that would make him late for his wedding, just one last case to work before settling down as Walker.  But when the case takes a wrong turn, everyone starts gunning for him, even his bride-to-be.

Now here's the problem.  That's the basic blurby thing they give you on all the reviews.  I kept waiting for it to happen.  2/3 of the way through the book she tells him that he's the biggest bounty yet and she can't turn that down and then we don't see her again until the end.  It was really misleading and while I think the general story was fine as written, putting that in the blurbs led to a certain expectation that wasn't met.  So there's my spoiler for you, it's not a big game of cat & mouse or hide & seek between John and Suzie.  It doesn't happen like that.  There are tons of other people gunning for John but she's not hot on his heels at any time, until the end.

Page count: 310p/9,660p ytd

110:30 Chaotic by Kelley Armstrong

A novella set in the Otherworld universe, we finally get to see the backstory on how Hope and Karl first met.  It has a very young and naive Hope thinking she is working for the council when in fact she is working for another organization entirely and Karl being Karl, thief and playboy and all around bad-ass.  Fun story and is making me impatient for the next book.

Page count: 60p?/9,350p ytd

110:29 A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

All I can say after reading this is Wow!  An intricate world is built in these pages and you can tell that there is much, much more to learn about it in future books.  I love how we don't get a lot of expose in the beginning but instead are put right into the story and the world and characters are allowed to unfold more naturally as we go. The characters are intense and there is always something more to learn about them as well.  I truly don't want to say much about any of it for fear of giving anything away but let's just say there is a magically hidden book, a forbidden romance, magic, and of course witches, vampires, and deamons (oh my!) but even more interesting is the scientific bent overlaid on top of it all...until the magic covers it over again.

A fantastic book and I'm anxiously awaiting the second book in the series.

Page count: 579p/9,290p ytd

110:27 Kate Daniels Novellas & Shorts by Ilona Andrews

Curran  POV 1 - Interesting.  Not a short story but more a collection of scenes from the first book or two but seen through Curran's eyes and thoughts.

Fathers & Sons (POV 2) - Takes place right after Curran and the others get out of the death match ring.  He's not happy with how Kate has been treated and goes against Mahon to assert his right to choose his mate.

Curran POV 3 - A short scene between Jim and Curran where Jim fills Curran in on Kate's heritage.  Nice little backstory.

Magic Mourns - Finally get to see Andrea and Rafael hook up and get some more backstory on Andrea's character.  Really nice addition to the universe.

Magic Gifts - Beware gifts you don't know anything about.  Curran and Kate finally get to go on a date when a gentleman gives his lady friend a necklace which rips her head off.  In the aftermath, the girls mother ends up protecting the father by placing the necklace on her son instead and Kate only has a few days to get it off before it kills him too.  Love these fast-paced stories but more than that, I want to know what the heck is going on between Andrea & Raphael as they are on the outs big time at the end of this.  Have to wait for summer for her story and I just can't wait!!!

A Questionable Client - The story of how Saiman and Kate first met.  Love how she kicks butt in this one and seeing their relationship get started.

Page count: 305p/8,711p ytd

110:27 By a Thread by Jennifer Estep

The 6th in the Elemental Assassin book.  Mab is dead and every low-life scum wants to make a name for themselves by taking out the assassin who took out Mab.  Gin is killing yet another would-be assassin (or group of would-be's) daily and the line doesn't seem to be getting any shorter.  So when Finn suggests they go for a vacation for a bit to give things time to blow over some, Gin reluctantly agrees.

Of course, there's no way that Gin's vacation could be just a normal vacation.  Instead, they travel to Bria's old stomping grounds and find out that her best friend is being harassed to sell her restaurant to the local kingpin and he's getting tired of waiting.  To make matters more fun, said best friend is recently engaged to Detective Donovan Caine, ex-lover of Gin's.

Things go completely sideways on the vacation from there.  Completely fast-paced and impossible to put down and I absolutely love this author's style.  I was also happy to see Gin get some resolution on her relationship with Donovan...her way.

Page count: 366p/8,406p ytd

110:26 The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

A friend loaned this one to me a while ago and since it wasn't in my usual genres, it sort of sat on my shelf until now.  It's an interesting take on a coming of age story.  There's no real plot, no beginning or end, just a snapshot of the life of a 13yr old boy taking one summer out of his life to look at.  It was a remarkable summer for him in which he found incredible things washed up on the shore where he lived but more than that, it was a summer when he learned more about himself than the sea.

Again, not really my type of book in a lot of ways.  I found it a little disjointed and I just couldn't really connect with the main character.  Not a bad book and I can see why it was recommended, but not really my kind of thing.

Page count: 246p/8,040p ytd

110:25 A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison

The 10th book in the Hollows series.  Rachel has been officially labeled a demon and has been bound to prevent her from tapping into the ley lines.  Since her demonblood keeps her from activating the higher level witch spells, this is leaving her without much in the way of defenses.  So when the IS comes to her because witches with high Rosewood counts are being abducted and mutated towards demon it's at first because they fear she may be doing it and once they are sure she isn't, then her choices are help them and get some semblance of a life back or walk away and have them blame her for the whole mess.  The problem is, it's an Interlander hate group that is just itching to get it's hands on some demon blood...

It's another romp with Rachel and the crew and I realized how much I've missed the series.  I think next time tho, I may reread at least this book before starting the new book as there were some subtle things being referred to that took me forever to remember. 

Page count: 438p/7,794p ytd