A pretty standard Anne McCaffrey story, actually the bugs as villans appear elsewhere in her series. Readable tho.

The fourth book in the Acorna series some of the backstory is filled in within the first chapter so you don't really have to have read the rest. Acorna is a very beautiful half-unicorn half-humanoid being who was brought up by some humans and thinks she's the only one until she finds more of her kind. She has to work out a way of fitting into society.

In this one she goes in search of a new home and when they hear a distress call they find a world that's lush, when they're attacked by the insectile Khleevi, when searching for a refuge they make a Khleevi ship crash and when chasing them they accidentally discover a way to fight them. They race against time to produce the solution before the Khleevi decimate as many races as they can reach.

I wasn't incredibly impressed but it is quite readable.

Best part about this book? The cover without a doubt.
I'm sure there are women who like the idea of a strong man who takes over and makes all the decisions but I'm not one of them and really Tempest isn't either. It's better than the other ones I've read, but honestly that doesn't move it much further up my ratings than to "readable".

Tempest ran away when very young to escape abuse and meets a group of carpathians including Darius, who discovers that she's his soulmate and procedes to insist that she should become his mate.

Honestly if I was Tempest I'd still find the overbearing and irritating and would want more freedom. I wouldn't find it romantic or appealing, I'm sure there are people who do but I'm not one of them.

Valentine's Day is Killing Me

I started reading it today and I have to say half-way through the second story it's not exceptional.

Mary Janice Davidson is capable of so much better actually, without trying to force the laughs.

notes while reading:
I'm found it a strange book to read, one minute I'm facinated and reading it with very few breaks and then in the next breath I'm wondering why I'm reading it and putting it down wondering if I should continue. The sun is calling and I'm going to bring it into the back with a cup of coffee and see where that takes me.

It would probably appeal to a lot of people I know who are into linguistics - it's about a jesuit linguistic making first contact.

Though I do like the quote in it, which occurs quite early, about learning language

"'Sometimes,' he told her... I begin with songs. They provide a sort of skeleton grammar for me to flesh out. Songs of longing for future tense, songs of regret for past tense, songs of love for the present.'
...
"'Isn't that interesting,' she said..., 'I do the same thing. Have you noticed that llullabies nearly always use a lot of command form?'"

I'm a bit ambivalent about this book, it is quite a good read and I'm not sorry I did but it's a bit of a trudge through some parts, although those parts are actually plot-important.

A worthwhile read, just not something I'd probably read again, tho it is going into a pile to reconsider after I read the sequel.

While this couldn't be described as a very deep book it does bring up some interesting points, what happens to people when they lose cases, particularly when the issues aren't necessarily obvious.

Kendra Ballantyne was a high flying litigator until scandal brought her down, now she works as a pet-sitter. When some of her clients start dying she's an obvious suspect. Fans of Janet Evanovich will like this, excepting that Johnson has given us only one choice for her main character, and it looks like she's rolled both of Evanovich's love interests into one.

Fun and undemanding.

The first of the Gardening mysteries and a good read. Rachel O'Connor is dealing with setting up her landscaping business and trying to convince her family to let her do her own thing, when one of her clients dies it looks like her employee may be responsible so she gets involved in the mystery to help solve it. Things get interesting when the detective turns out to be her ex-boyfriend for whom she still has feelings.

Cosy, lightweight and interesting.

An interesting, opinionated, literate view of Science Fiction, scarily enough now 20 years old. It examines the history of SF and then goes into a decade by decade examination of SF since about 1890. The chapter on the future of SF was extremely interesting, notably when you look at what actually happened in the late 80's and early 90's. A bit of a plough through book but interesting and well written with a lot of examples.

It was funny for me to read it in light of the fact that I've read such a chunk of the authors mentioned, particularly when I was younger. Now that I'm older I prefer Fantasy to SF but still this book made me want to revisit some of my teenage favourites.

Book two in the series and Emma is trying to find a way to save her mother, still wondering who to trust, it's a slow burner that gets more interesting towards the end, I am interested in reading the rest of the series but I'm still holding fire on whether or not I'm going to keep this series, it all hinges on the next two books.

Elena is pregnant and having to deal with the men in her life fussing around her when she accidentally gets her blood on the "from hell" letter, which opens a portal for some zombies, and a man. Murders in the style of Jack the Ripper start up and Elena has to try to solve this and keep the babies alive.

Interesting and quite fast paced this is quite a good read and I liked how Elena is developing.