Under A Vampire Moon By Lynsay Sands

Review by Cynthia F.  (frazerc)

What kind of mother invites her son along on her honeymoon?  One who has discovered the perfect lifemate for him.  Marguerite Argeneau is the bride honeymooning in the Caribbean with her new (or new again) husband, Julius Notte.  Famous among her extended family as a matchmaker extraordinaire, she casually meets Carolyn.  After a quick stroll through her head Marguerite feels she will be perfect for Christian, her and Julius’ 500 year old son.  (The whys and wherefores for that are covered in another book:  Vampire, Interrupted.  No, you don’t have to have read it before this one, but you will probably want to after this one.)  So she arranges for Christian and his cousins to bring their band to the island to perform – and not so incidentally meet the lovely Carolyn.

Christian is thrilled with Carolyn but Carolyn? not so much. She has issues, BIG issues, especially with a 42 year old almost-divorced woman getting obsessed with a hot stud boy toy in his 20s. So cousin Gia has the brilliant idea to tell Carolyn that Christian is gay – but in the closet – and would really appreciate her being his ‘pretend’ girlfriend while they are on the island.  Much merriment and frustration ensue…

It’s a great book in the style of the earliest ones of this series.  It’s light and funny and we feel for poor Christian whose love life is being interfered with by both his parents and his cousins.  His attempts – and failures – to keep his desire in check definitely raise the sexual temperature!  Carolyn’s behavior seems to be a little odd – until the end of the book when the machinations of her soon-to-be-ex are revealed.

So, witty dialog, nefarious (and not so nefarious) plots, lovely setting and hot romance – what’s not to love?  I’ll be buying the ebook when it’s out for my Kindle…

Argeneau Vampires by Lynsay Sand

#1  A Quick Bite

#2  Love Bites

#3  Single White Vampire

#4  Tall, Dark & Hungry

#5  A Bite to Remember

#6  Bite Me If You Can

#7  The Accidental Vampire

#8  Vampires Are Forever

#9  Vampire, Interrupted

#10  The Rogue Hunter

#11  The Immortal Hunter

#12  The Renegade Hunter

#12.5  Bitten By Cupid

#13  Born To Bite

#14  Hungry For You

#15  The Reluctant Vampire

#15.5  “The Gift” in The Bite Before Christmas

#16  Under a Vampire Moon

#17  The Lady Is a Vamp (due out July 31, 2012)

Diary of a Mad Bride by Laura Wolf

Review by Kristen D.

I am currently planning my wedding, so this book was a great read to read while in the midst of planning!

What a perfect read for a bride to be and any of her friends who may experience the crazy!  Formatted in a diary fashion the book chronicles the months and plans leading up to a wedding.  I love that our main character from the beginning put out the front that she was trying to avoid any bridezilla moments, but they can sneak up on you when you least expect them.

With a groom that is very busy at work and rough times with both families, I loved reading this story in the middle of my planning.  The characters felt real and I could picture them walking down the street and passing me by. The book had the perfect mix of humor and comedy mixed with character development and heart/soul.

I would put this book in the hands of every bride and bridesmaid to see a fictionalized version, but to know that there will be a moment in each planning process where crazy can hit a fan.

Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland

Review by Cheryl (Spuddie)

It is late 1920’s in the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin is beginning his rise to power. At his behest, a prisoner sent to the forests of Siberia is freed–Pekkala, also known as The Emerald Eye, who was formerly a close aide to and spy for the Tsar Nicholas Romanov. Barely recognizable as his former self after years in the gulags and living in the forest, Pekkala is brought by a young officer to receive his instructions from (much to his surprise) his brother Anton, whom he has not seen for many years.

Stalin has charged Pekkala with discovering what really happened on the night the Romanov family was slaughtered ten years previously, and to establish at last whether the entire family died or whether there is a possibility of one or more of the children escaping. Were this the case, they would now be of age and a possible threat to Stalin’s rising star.

As Pekkala, Anton, and the young officer go to the Sverdlosk region to Ipatiev House where the executions took place, they find themselves being told much conflicting information and Pekkala must use his knowledge of investigation and human nature to glean the wheat from the chaff. Soon their lives are in obvious danger, but Pekkala is unsure who is trying to stop them from discovering the truth since there could be several parties with that objective in mind.

Very excellent reading of this first book in series (reader: Paul Micheal) and a unique main character in Inspector Pekkala. He does fit the stereotypical Scandinavian (he is Finnish by birth, from before Finland broke free from the Soviet Union) character, rather taciturn and reticent and with a gloomy outlook on life–although given his experiences, that’s certainly justified.

The story itself was interesting and the prose and dialogue flowed nicely and was well-balanced between detail and description and action. I’m not a big fan of Russian history in general, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the details about the period or the Romanovs, but looking at it as strictly fiction about some real-life people and events, I enjoyed it very much. Inspector Pekkala has a unique skillset that means he will likely have several other lively adventures in him, and I plan to be along for the ride!

A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock

Review by Jerelyn H.  (I-F-Letty)

I have a weakness for mysteries set in the Victorian era.  While I like most historical mysteries, there is something about this era in England, in this time of foggy gas lit streets, that takes hold of my imagination.  It is the dawn of the industrial age, and technological advances in every quarter were on the horizon.

A Foreign Affair takes place just as the last Hanoverian King William IV is dying, and his niece Victoria is poised to take the throne.  Never had an English Queen come to power without civil strife. But that isn’t what concerns Liberty Lane at this time.  Her beloved father is killed in France in a duel.  Liberty knows her father, and knows he has been murdered he would never have dueled.  With a single minded intensity she sets off to prove this.  She leaves the safe, but begrudging care of an aunt, and makes her way to France.  She is thrown head long into political skullduggery which not only threatens her life, but that of the nation.  A shadowy figure offers her a way to find out what happened to her father.  Out of money and options she agrees to pose as a Governess to a wholly unlikeable man and his dysfunctional family, there is a connection to the death of her father here, if only she can prove it.

Ms. Peacock writes a great cast of characters that will reoccur in the next books.  I have seen Ms. Peacock described as Christie-esque and I can’t deny they might have a little of that feeling, bodies do tend to turn up when she is around.  Liberty is a young woman raised by socially conscious parents, with decidedly republican sentiments.  I think that her upbringing, gives her the strength to defy convention, and to make her own way in the world, at a time that women were very much restricted.  Peacock gives a very good portrayal of the challenges she might have faced.  What I also loved was her understanding of the class system and how Liberty fits into it.  I liked this book very much and what excites me is that there are three other books in this series and a fifth to be released in June.  4 stars

Stacks: The Art of Verticle Food by Deborah Fabricant

Review by Carole  (craftnut)

For beginners and experienced cooks, this book shows you how to wow your company and your family with little effort.  These are familiar ingredients and recipes, just a different way of presenting the dish.   The recipes cover salads, starters, seafood, savory and sweet.  No special equipment is necessary, although the stacks will be easier to make in some of the recipes if you own a set of stacking cylinders.  These can be purchased, or for the truly frugal, save your soup cans to use (the book tells you how).  A couple of the recipes show how to use other things for shaping the stack, like a pyramid mold.  Many recipes are ‘freeform’, just layering the ingredients without using a mold at all.

So much of a meal is in the presentation, and I always get rave reviews when I start the dinner party with a stacked salad course.  My favorite is to use heirloom tomatoes in yellow and purple-red, layered with goat cheese and fresh basil leaves, dressed with a little balsamic vinaigrette.   The idea came from the charts in the beginning chapter that give you a mix of ideas, simple as choosing one ingredient from each column that best suits your taste or what you have on hand.

My favorite recipe for a brunch from Stacks is the Grilled Salmon and Corn Pancake Stack.  The pancakes can be made an hour ahead, so you just have to assemble the stacks right before serving.  Place a little Crème Fraiche to hold the layers together with some watercress for crunch, and you have a winner.

The Enchilada Stacks are yummy, and I made them with full size tortillas and didn’t use the stacking cylinders.  Tortillas are layered with meat mixture and cheeses, baked briefly and garnished with lettuce, tomato, avocado, scallions and sour cream.    Just cut the stack into quarters for serving.

The Seafood Risotto Stacks are elegant and tasty, and not that hard to do using the shortcut method at the end of the recipe.

The recipes lend themselves easily to substitutions.  The Raspberry Lemon Meringue Stacks were wonderful made with in-season blueberries instead.   Some of the recipes give suggestions for substitutions, like putting grilled chicken in the recipe for the corn pancake stacks instead of salmon.

Stacks: The Art of Vertical Food has neat ideas, and lovely full color photographs of most of the recipes.  Each recipe gives tips to plan ahead and most have shortcuts too.   Next up for me to try will be the Death By Chocolate dessert stack, yum!!

Poems For Men Who Dream of Lolita by Kim Morrissey

Review by Rebecca (rocky1)

Poems for Men who Dream of Lolita  by Kim Morrisey touches on what we do not get to see in the infamous novel originally written by Vladimir Nabokov-Lolita and her actual experiences.

In this book of poetry, we are privy to her thoughts, feelings and life, both before meeting the notorious Humbert Humbert, during her time with him in their travels and daily life, her experience escaping Humbert and into the arms of Claire Quilty, and finally, leaving Quilty and working in a diner, where she meets her future husband, Richard.

Here, we are able to see Lolita as an actual human being-not necessarily the “bad girl” or “seductive nymphet” Humbert portrays her as. Rather, we are able to see her as a flesh-and-blood girl who is despised at by her mother, longs for love, and has an inquiring mind of the world and people around her. Her thoughts on love and life are present throughout each poem. The poems are not tedious or overly long, and even those who do not read a lot of poetry would find this easy to digest. One does not have to have read Lolita by Nabokov, but it does help to give a better understanding of the characters and settings.

I especially enjoyed being able to see the aspects of her we are not permitted to see in the original novel, such as her disappointment in Quilty and the life he offers her, becoming pregnant with Richard’s child, getting married, and being a housewife.

Fans of the novel should not miss this intimate experience with an unlikely heroine.

The Far Side of the Dollar by Ross Macdonald

Review by Matt (BuffaloSavage)

Predictably enough, the plot of the 11th Lew Archer novel revolves around the elements that we expect in Macdonald’s mysteries.

Troubled youth.

Clueless parents.

Uncertain paternity.

Secrets.

Archer, a former troubled teen himself before the crucible of Okinawa, rather shows his middle-age by counseling tolerance and patience when dealing with seemingly bizarre teenage behavior. The middle class adults with the blues are entirely plausible but so are the crooks in Macdonald’s.

In this one the crook is sadistic creep that was made that way by his father, a nut who did not spare the rod and thus created a thug.

Macdonald is at the top his game here. His ability to create characters is awesome, as his returning to theme of fathers and how much suffering they create when they fail their sons.