“A Questionable Client” by Ilona Andrews

by Carol4 Comments
"A Questionable Client" by Ilona Andrews This story is the first in the Dark and Stormy Knights anthology and takes place before the first in Andrew's Kate Daniels series, but I think it does a great job describing the world she lives in, an Atlanta that endures waves of magic, where technology sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Kate Daniels, a mercenary with the Knights of Merciful Aid, is hired as a bodyguard for a mysterious client whose current bodyguards are ditching out of the assignment. When Kate gets to the address, she meets the shape-shifter Saiman. For those who have read the series, this first meeting is especially interesting, but for those who haven't Saiman is still a fascinating character, in kind of a creepy way. Kate spends the night protecting Saiman from all kinds of nasty things intent on killing him, all because he has something, actually swallowed something, very powerful. Even for those not familiar with Kate Daniels, this is...
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Game Night – Rowboat

by Carol6 Comments
Rowboat Manufacturer: Moosetache Games Year: 2010 Players: 2 - 4 Time: 60 minutes Ages: 13 and up Ah, summer's over here in eastern Ohio. The temperature has been in the sixties and low seventies for a while now. I love autumn, but I kinda miss summer too. However, this winter when I'm longing for the beach, for warm weather, I can at least pull out Rowboat, a very pretty trick-taking card game. These are some of the "face" cards, but there are also the standard 2-10 of the four suits, shells, waves, oars and maps. Isn't the nautical theme beautifully done? The game play itself is reminiscent of several other card games, but put together in a unique way. The dealer lays cards out on the table face up until all four suits are showing. This is called the Tide. The number of the cards varies each game. Each card in the deal represents a round and is the card that controls trump for that round....
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The Princess and the Frog

by Carol4 Comments
The Princess and the Frog I'm a slight Fairy Tale Friday failure this week. I haven't watched any fairy tale flicks lately, so I'm going back to one we saw in December last year in the theater, but it is out on DVD now and it's one I would definitely recommend. It's a twist on the traditional Grimm tale, "The Frog Prince." Hardworking New Orleans waitress Tiana hopes to one day fulfill the dream of her father  and own her own restaurant. But the plan isn’t going so well until she meets Prince Naveen—who doesn’t exactly sweep her off her feet in the traditional sense. He’s been turned into a frog thanks to a curse from the nefarious voodoo doctor. When frog Naveen sees Tania dressed in a ball gown he thinks she’s a princess, and her kiss might break his curse. Instead the kiss turns Tiana into a frog as well, and the...
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Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

by Carol11 Comments
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel Reading this, I got caught up in its spell. It's not a perfect novel, but the story of obsession, loss and searching transfixed me. Lilia was kidnapped by her father when she was young and has been constantly traveling since then, eventually leaving behind everyone everyone she meets, including those who care about her, like Eli her lover in New York. She just can't stay. Forever is the most dizzying word in the English language. The idea of staying in one place forever was like standing at the border of a foreign country, peering over the fence and trying to imagine what life might be like on the other side, and life on the other side was frankly unimaginable. Eli heads to Montreal in pursuit of her and meets Michaela, a young woman who says she knows how to contact Lilia. The basic story revolves around these three, their feelings for...
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The Ace of Spades by K. H. Koehler

by Carol7 Comments
Black Jack Derringer Book I: The Ace of Spades by K. H. Koehler I don't know quite how to describe this one. Cyberpunky, post-apocalyptic western? Pure fun if you like an old-fashioned shoot-em-up and muto horses with bulletproof hides. "Wild" Alice West is a bounty hunter in the vast desert known as the Skillet, an area with an Old West feel, but she's barely hanging on in a culture where a woman doing a man's job gets no respect. In a saloon, she meets Mr. Treen, an albino card shark who she thinks would be the perfect front man for her. Of course, Mr. Treen has surprising talents and scary secrets of his own. The Skillet is a rough, dangerous place, no doubt about it. And Alice gets in more than her fair share of scrapes, but doesn't seem to regret anything. She does what she has to do. She's got guts, I'll give her that. I'm not sure who or what Mr....
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