Overdue reviews - continued

Borne in Blood is Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's 20th entry in her Saint Germain series.   I've been reading the counts adventures from the beginning.  At this point it feel like I'm catching up with an old friend.  Her meticulous attention to detail really helps to visualize the time period of the book.  Borne in Blood takes place right after the end of the Napoleonic wars.  Saint-Germain has taken as a companion a woman, Hero, widowed by the war.  Hero is in a struggle with her father-in-law to have access to her children.  Yabro highlights just how few rights women have in this time period.  It also shows how women are so used to such treatment that they just accept it without questions.  In a sense this is more a story about Hero, than it is the count.  As such the threat this time is directed toward Hero, and it is up to the count to rescue her. 

The ending was predictable, but that didn't bother me.  As I said in the beginning, the count seems like an old friend, and I don't always want to see him battered at the end of the book.

 

 

Dog Days by John Levitt was a new author for me to explore. 

The story centers around Mason and his afrit, Louie, who happens to appear as a dog.  A new power has come into town, and seems to have it in for Mason.  There are several attempts on his life, and Mason eventually seeks help from those he used to work for.  The world building was efficient and didn't bog down the narrative.  The characters seemed realistic.  I found some over-generalizations annoying.  Not all of California lacks central heat.  Also his description of Louie as a small doberman with floppy ears and tail became annoying.  If he wanted a more accurate description, he could have said that Louie resembled a Miniature Pincher that hadn't had it's ears or tail docked.  A little bit of research on dog breeds would have gone a long way there.  Overall, I enjoyed the story.  The author's characterization of women was lacking in depth.  Luckily there weren't too many around, so it didn't detract from the story too much.  The ending left a lot of unanswered questions, so I assume this is the beginning of a series.

 

Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown was disappointing.  For this outing Fair and Harry are on their honeymoon at a horse show with all of Harry's pets along for the ride.  Gone was the cozy feeling of the Post Office and her usual friends.  The friendships in this book seemed forced.  Too much time was spent on descriptions of horse shows.  The dialog was dreadful and stilted as the author preached her political beliefs through her characters.  I'm sad to say this is probably the last of the series that I'll read.  In the past couple of books the author seems more concerned with preaching her political views rather than telling an engaging story.  I miss the mysteries and fun of the earlier books.  Heck, I even named my corgi, Tucker.

 

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine takes your breath away.

Caine pulls no punches.  You are thrown immediately into the action as Joanne Baldwin in on the run.  We find the back story slowly as she escapes from her fellow Weather Wardens and an unknown entity that seems determine to kill her.  Along the way she picks up a hitchhiker, David, who becomes more than just a casual aquaintance.  The action is almost too relentless.  I kept wondering if this gal was ever going to get a chance to catch her breath.  In spite of the constant action you really get a sense of who Joanne is, and why she's making the choices she is.  My one complaint would be that the romance turned from lust to love a bit too quickly.