Werewolf in Alaska by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Review by reacherfan1909

Series: Wild About You; can be read as a stand alone

Rachel Miller inherits a small cabin on a lake in Polecat Alaska from her grandfather.  It comes with an all too handsome, but anti-social neighbor across the lake, Jake Hunter.  At least Grandpa Ike had left her an excellent pair of binoculars, so she had some wonderful views to enjoy of Jake skinny dipping each night.

He also was the first sale of one of her wood carvings.  Working on becoming vet had been a dream, but dealing with the reality of death and pain had been harder than she ever realized.  Taking this break let her try her first steps at seeing if the talent she had could be a way to make a living.  When the first sale was a wolf she carved went to Jake, she was thrilled, but too shy to reveal she was the artist.  That sale gave her the courage to quit vet school and pursue art.

Three years later Rachel was still in Polecat, still carving, and still watching Jake Hunter skinny dip –when he was home.  Now though, Rachel was financially set, famous for her wolf carvings and sold pieces large and small all over the world.  Little did she know most went to rick werewolves who recognized her signature wolf – Jake Hunter (or more correctly, Jake’s father).

Then one night, busy on a cell phone call and carrying a tube of sketches, she walked out of the workshop she’d had built without looking around first – and ended up between a mama grizzly and her cub.

For 3 years, Jake has been fighting his attraction to the very human Rachel Miller.  As the founder of WARM (Werewolves Against Random Mating), Jake has spearheaded the movement to keep humans and weres apart, especially in the bedroom and most certainly NOT a mates.  But living across from his biggest temptation, hasn’t been easy, and seeing her walk out of her shop, unaware of the bears has him shifting to wolf in daylight to try and communicate with the bear as a wolf.  But Momma bear is too panicked and Jake end up in a fight with trying to save Rachel.  And he might be a big wolf, but no wolf is a match for an upset mama grizzly and he gets hurt.

Rachel is determined to ‘save’ the brave wolf, ‘her wolf’ the one she’s convinced she’s been carving for 3 years, and drags Jake’s furry butt into her cabin to do her modified vet thing.  If she’d just let him go, he could shift and the healing would speed up.  Instead, he endured her painful ministrations …………. Right up until she tried to shave his fir with a PINK razor!  He wiggles under the bed and refused to come out.  Sometimes, it was kind of strange; it was like she could hear his thoughts.  But that only happened with mates ……….. no, no, no.  She was not his mate!  When Rachel lets Jake the wolf go in the morning, her young assistant Lionel tracks him to Jake’s cabin.

From there, this slow paced romance finally gets moving, sort of, but with no pizazz or verve to speak of.

I’m a big fan of all kinds of shifter romance, especially Shelly Laurenston, and Werewolf in Alaska has its moments, but it’s a lightweight paranormal romance without much substance and kind in its polt or characters.  No moments to remember.   The romance part was okay, no real fireworks, just a sense of ‘been there, done that’.   Overall, it got a C (3*) from me.  The language and romance are at the PG level.

Recommend instead – Molly Harper’s Half Moon Hollow vampire/paranormal series or Shelly Laurenston’s Pack and Pride series.

The Case of the Spurious Spinster by Erle Stanley Gardner

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

The later Perry Mason novels are organized like the TV episodes featuring  the super-lawyer. That is, the action opens with what really happened, usually to a plucky working girl who’s just trying to do her best in a strange situation. The situation deteriorates ethically and legally to the point where the protagonist is driven to consult Perry Mason, who is intrigued by whatever kind of scam is afoot.

A demure secretary, Susan Fisher, suspects her boss of funny business when the boss’ young son comes up with a shoebox full of benjamins. Also, the owner of the company – the kind of blunt astute business woman Gardner respected – disappears along with accounting evidence that defalcations have been occurring.  Seeing herself in a vulnerable position, Susan consults Perry Mason.

So, the first chapter of Spurious Spinster is one of the longest set-ups in the Gardner canon of 80-some Perry Mason novels.  Usually I would feel impatient with this (I like a vic right away in a mystery), but Gardner, wielding narrative magic  in a story of embezzlement, kidnapping,  and impersonation, builds suspense by getting us veteran fans wondering when the heck the murder is coming off and who is going to be the vic. When Perry and Della finally come upon a gasoline-doused corpse, the tension is just about unbearable.  The trial sequence is thus delayed and seems a tad rushed. Though dour Lt. Tragg and Perry have some fine exchanges, DA Hamilton Burger does not get a chance to make an exasperated outburst.

Other exceptional scenes: Della uses her femininity to open up a crusty prospector and Paul flatly predicts, “The evidence points so unerringly and so damningly that there isn’t a ghost of a chance she’s innocent. And what’s more, I’m betting that within twenty-four hours Amelia Corning’s body will be discovered somewhere and you’ll find your client charged with another murder.” Boy, you’d think after 60-some novels (this was published in 1961), Paul would have as much faith in Perry as Della does.

As we fans do….

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Review by Brenna B. (demiducky25)

Not that long ago I wrote a blog post about Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper and mentioned that I planned to read The Forgotten Garden since my mom read both books and thought that The Forgotten Garden was the better of the two books.  Although both books were wonderful, I did like The Secret Keeper better.  But that doesn’t take away from the wonderful story contained in The Forgotten Garden.  This is also an impressive and wonderful story that I readily recommend.

The stories of three women are weaved together across time and country borders.  Nell is a woman who learned that she was a foundling and spends her life isolating herself from the family she once was close to.  The only person who can get close to her is her granddaughter Cassandra, whose mother abandoned her to Nell’s care.  Nell tries to learn her true identity, but Cassandra has to take up the search when Nell is no longer able to.  The only clue either woman initially has to go by is a rare book of fairy tales that Nell had when she was found on an Australian dock in 1913.  The fairy tale book was written by a woman initially only referred to as The Authoress, an English woman with a mysterious background of her own and whose life story is somehow tied to Nell’s.  A hidden garden on an English estate also plays a pivotal role in all three women’s lives.

I think that’s all I can safely say without giving away anything important.  Morton really knows how to craft a wonderful story.  Each character’s story was engaging and wonderful to read, though there were a few parts where the story felt like it got repetitive or dragged a bit, a feeling I didn’t get with The Secret Keeper.  But those moments were few and far between.  Time jumps and character shifts occur with nearly every chapter, but Morton helps you safely travel between each thread of the story.  A few chapters are excerpts from the book of fairy tales Nell was found with and those stories allude to the lives of the other characters.  Also, anyone who has every read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden will appreciate a number of parallels between this book and The Secret Garden, including a cameo appearance by Frances Hodgson Burnett at a garden party.

All in all this was a great read.  It’s the perfect book to start on a dreary, rainy afternoon and get lost in for hours at a time.

My rating- 4 out of 5 stars

Note: To read Brenna’s review of The Secret Keeper, click this LINK

Trial by Fury by Craig Rice

Review by Thomas F. (hardtack)

My copy of this book is a 1957 first edition paperback which includes the statement “Number 2 of the Dell Great Mystery Library” on the cover. This statement is well-earned as the story was engrossing and a hoot to boot. I forget where I read that Craig Rice wrote entertaining mysteries, but I found my copy at a local, used book store. Apparently, Rice had a reputation for writing excellent murder mysteries that were also humorous.

In this novel, fifth of a series, a big city couple go to rural Wisconsin to do some fishing. The murder of a state politician is committed in plain sight in the court house where they stop to get a fishing license. Unfortunately for them, the victim rolls down the stairs and literally ends up dead at their feet. As strangers they are suspected as the murderers, as obviously no one in this small, close-knit town would ever do such a terrible thing. Although it was the first murder to occur in in 32 years, the town is getting ready to make up for it. The next three days see three more murders and, like today, the town begins to fill up with reporters from the major radio stations and newspapers from far and wide.

Apparently, the central character in the series is a somewhat alcoholic, big city lawyer by the name of John J. Malone. The couple is friendly with Malone, as he helped them avoid jail for other murders they were accused of.  (Hmmmmm….) So they give him a call to rush right up from Chicago. Malone is torn between solving the mystery and getting back to Chicago as quickly as he can. Fortunately, it is not necessary to read the series in order to appreciate the story or understand the characters. I felt I fully understood the characters as they were introduced, and Craig provides other necessary information about their personalities and relationship within the story.

Craig Rice was one of the names that Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig wrote under, while another is George Sanders. Craig once rivaled Agatha Christie in sales and was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1946. She died in 1957.