Title:  Kitty’s House of Horrors

Author:  Carrie Vaughn

ISBN:  9780446199551

Pages:  292

Release Date:  January 1, 2010

Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Source:  Library

Rating:  5.0/5

Summary:

In the seventh entry in Carrie Vaughn’s bestselling Kitty Norville series, a publicity stunt turns into a fight for the popular radio talk show host’s life.

Talk radio host and werewolf Kitty Norville has agreed to appear on TV’s first all-supernatural reality show. She’s expecting cheesy competitions and manufactured drama starring shapeshifters, vampires, and psychics. But what begins as a publicity stunt will turn into a fight for her life.

The cast members, including Kitty, arrive at the remote mountain lodge where the show is set. As soon as filming starts, violence erupts and Kitty suspects that the show is a cover for a nefarious plot. Then the cameras stop rolling, cast members start dying, and Kitty realizes she and her monster housemates are ironically the ultimate prize in a very different game. Stranded with no power, no phones, and no way to know who can be trusted, she must find a way to defeat the evil closing in . . . before it kills them all.

Review:

Wow. As much as I know that author Carrie Vaughn is one of my all-time favourite paranormal authors, this book blew me away and made me admire her all the more.  Kitty seems to find the worst kinds of trouble wherever she turns and by now I would think she would have the foresight to set up some kind of arrangement with her husband Ben – for example, calling him at least once a day or he sends in the army to find and rescue her. The problem with that idea,I suppose, is that sometimes it’s those same people in power who are out to get her – not that that’s the case here – just saying it could happen.

The sub-plot of Cormac finally getting a parole hearing takes a bit of a back-burner, but it was always in the back of my mind – will he get out, will there still be that romantic tension between him and Kitty, how will it all affect her relationship with Ben?

One of these days I’m going to have to start reviewing books from authors I don’t know. By reviewing authors that I already love, I’m pretty much guaranteeing a 4.5 to 5 out of 5 every time. I love reading books that leave me with such anticipation for the next in the series, but I somehow feel like I’m letting my readers down if I don’t review a “not-so-good” book once in awhile.

Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it!
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four

For a few seconds, Sarah just stood there, looking at the cell phone in her hand in silence. Finally, Hillard asked, “What’s that?”

“My cell phone.  Christine had it …”

As Sarah continued to stare at the cell phone, her brain tried to process why it had been laying on the side of the road, when she knew that Christine would have held onto it no matter what. After a moment, Hillard gently took the flashlight from her hand and began searching the ground around where the cell phone had lain. He wasn’t gone long before he returned to her side. He didn’t look happy about what he had found.

“Someone took her, didn’t they?” Sarah asked quietly, a feeling of dread washing over her.

“Looks like it. Those rough types I talked about earlier, I would guess. But I have a feeling that I know where they took her. They wouldn’t really hurt her, not yet. We should be able to get her back.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?”

That question seemed to give Hillard pause – he looked like he wanted to tell her something but was holding back. After a moment, he looked down at the phone in her hand and asked, “With what?”

Tears welled up in Sarah’s eyes. She should never have let Christine go off on her own. Visions of Christine, clothing torn, blood on her face, began to flash through Sarah’s mind. Her breath roughened and she began to cough again.

Hillard put his arms around her. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered reassuringly, “I’ll help you find her.”
Something about holding Sarah in his arms made Hillard smile, despite the seriousness of the situation. When he had first seen her, she had been so defiant and strong, and now she was full of a gentle vulnerability that it made him want to protect her. That was a new experience for him. Hillard generally tried to keep his distance from other people, whether physical or emotional. He felt like he was connecting with Sarah in a way that he hadn’t connected with anyone in a very long time, and although part of him just wanted to enjoy the feelings that were rushing through him, it was something he couldn’t afford right now, especially with someone like her.

He stepped back. “Come on. We’d best get moving. And I’m going to try to explain some things to you, although I’m not quite sure about the best way to go about it. There are some things happening around here that you’re going to find hard to believe. When I first saw you there, in your car, I thought there might be some way I could ease you into this, but I don’t think that’s possible now.”

Sarah was really confused now. She wasn’t even sure how to respond to what Hillard had said, so she just decided not to.  She turned away from him and started walking down the road again, Hillard falling into step beside her after a moment. Sarah looked over at him, waiting for him to begin to tell her whatever it was he wanted to say, still having no idea how to respond to his strange declaration.

It was awhile before Hillard sighed, ran his fingers through his hair and said, “Okay, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don’t even know where to start.”

He didn’t continue. They walked on in silence for a few minutes, and then he sighed again. “Okay,” he said slowly, “you know the fog you came through the other night?”

“Yes.” Sarah was really curious as to where this was going now.

“Well, let me just give you a hypothetical situation. I want you to suspend all of your preconceptions and just listen to what I have to say with an open mind, okay?”

“Ohh kaaay.” Sarah drew the word out slowly and had to work hard to stop herself from forming a wall of disbelief at the very suggestion of anything that might require her to keep an open mind. Things had been so strange for the past day or so that part of her wanted to close up at the very hint that Hillard might throw any more weirdness her way.

“Just imagine that the fog was a gate,” he started, and now Sarah stopped walking for a moment and just stared at Hillard, searching his handsome face for any sign as to whether he actually believed what he was saying, or if he thought he was being funny. He continued, with the same serious look on his face, ”a gate to another world just like yours, but somehow different. In this world, something happened differently in the past. This world developed in whole other ways from your own.  It‘s as if it were the same world up to a singular point in time where one person made a different decision from that which was made in your world, and at that point the two futures branched off in two different directions.”

Sarah stopped and just looked at him for a minute. “You lost me at the point where you said that the fog was a gate. The rest of it sounds like some great Twilight Zone material though.”

“Well, has anything seemed strange or out of the ordinary to you since you came out of the fog?”

Sarah thought about the road suddenly becoming gravel, without any visible sign of construction. She thought about Gerwin and Elke and their secret looks and lack of technology. Even Hillard himself was strange. To say that things were strange or out of the ordinary was somewhat of an understatement.

“Okay,” she finally admitted, “Yes, some things have been a little . . . odd. But what you’re talking about is impossible. I think, at the most, I must be having some kind of fever hallucination. It’s also possible that you’re some kind of lunatic, and I shouldn’t be so trusting as to let you just lead me off into the dark like this.”

Hillard sighed in frustration. He could see that he wasn’t doing a very good job of explaining things to her. He didn’t want to scare her off completely and have her decide that he wasn’t a safe travelling companion. He decided to just let the matter drop for now and let things take their course.

“Well, fine, either I’m crazy or you’re crazy. We can just leave it at that for now. I can promise you, however, that I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise to keep you safe no matter what. How about we just don’t worry too much about what I’ve been saying and just go and find your sister, okay?”

Sarah was only too happy to drop the bizarre subject and they continued walking down the deserted gravel road. The sun was starting to come up and Sarah could hear an entire symphony of birds beginning to sing in the trees around her. Despite the lovely surroundings, her cold was sapping a lot of her energy and she was feeling pretty exhausted from all of the walking.

Hillard looked over at her and saw how worn-out she looked.

“Do you want to stop for awhile?” he asked, a concerned look in his eyes.

“We need to get to Christine. Or, at the very least, we need to get to a town so we can tell the police what happened.”

Hillard inwardly groaned. Sarah really didn’t seem to understand that things were different now. There was no authority they could go to for help – the authority was the one who had her sister. However, the idea of resting, away from the hot sun, appealed to him.

“Do you have anything useful in these bags?” he asked.

“Just a change of clothes and some toiletries,” she answered, realizing that if they were going to rest for awhile she really didn’t have anything useful with her except for the emergency blanket.

“Well, I have a few things. They should do the job for now.”

They walked off the road into the woods a bit and then walked parallel to the road for a short distance until they found a nice sheltered spot that looked suitable as a rest stop.

“What if there are wild animals?” Sarah asked nervously, looking around her, picturing a bear coming through the woods to kill them both.

“They tend to keep their distance from me,” Hillard replied, with a hint of a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch. You just get some rest. You won’t be any help to your sister if you’re really sick.”

Sarah was too tired to do anything but watch as Hillard spread a thick fabric ground cloth on the mossy forest floor. She didn’t have the strength to argue with him. When Hillard finished with the ground cloth, Sarah walked over to it, pulled the emergency blanket out of her bag, put the bag under her head as a pillow, and then lay down and tried to sleep. However, without the exertion of walking, her body temperature quickly dropped, a process that was sped up by the chill seeping up from the ground, passing all too easily through the cloth covering.

Hillard noticedSarah’s discomfort as she tried to wrap the blanket tighter and tighter around herself. Without saying a word, he strolled around the rest area, picking up twigs and small pieces of wood from the ground. Then he pulled some dried moss up and added that to the pile of kindling. He gathered some rocks, dug a shallow impression in the ground with the heel of his boot, and surrounded the hole with the rocks. Then he put the moss in the centre and started laying twigs around it in the shape of a tepee. This process took him all of ten minutes. Finally, he took a stone and his knife out of his bag and struck the stone sharply with the knife. Sparks flew from the knife, landed in the moss and, within minutes, there was a small fire going. Hillard dragged the ground cloth, Sarah and all, closer to the fire and wrapped the ground cloth up over both Sarah and her emergency blanket. Sarah was too tired to say a word.  Then Hillard pulled another blanket out of his bag and covered her with that, too. Within minutes, Sarah was feeling warmer and finally able to sleep.

“But what about you?” Sarah asked sleepily, grateful to have someone take care of her, but feeling slightly guilty as well, thinking that Hillard was probably feeling the cold nearly as much as she had been.

“I’ll just settle myself down over here and keep an eye on you,” Hillard replied, walking over to a tree, sitting on the ground in front of it and reclining against it, as if it were the most comfortable chair in the world. “I like the chill of the autumn.”

Sarah was too tired to argue, so she closed her eyes and gave in to the waves of sleep that were enveloping her. She was soon snoring softly.

Hillard just watched her. The tree he was leaning against was providing enough shade so that the heat of the sun was not bothering him too much. He would prefer to be in a complete shelter but, with Sarah with him, he hadn’t been able to move fast enough the night before to make it to the cottage.

Sarah was an interesting woman. A bit stubborn for his taste, but he liked it in a way. She didn’t just accept what she was told; she seemed to have an intelligent, questioning nature. She would be in for a heck of a shock when she finally accepted her situation. He just hoped that they reached her sister in time. Normally, fog travellers, once taken by Lord Radek, survived for about a month, sometimes even less. He reckoned that he and Sarah should be able to reach the castle in a day or two. He just wasn’t sure how in the world they were going to get in.

Hillard closed his eyes for a bit, confident that the forest creatures would not want to come within a hundred feet of him. He smiled as he dozed.

Read Chapter 6 next Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 . . .

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here. Right now the pdf version is only $0.99!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Title:  Pale Demon

Author:  Kim Harrison

ISBN:  9780061138065

Pages:  432

Release Date:  February 22, 2010

Publisher:  Eos

Genre:  Eos

Source:  Library

Rating:  5.0/5

Summary:

Condemned to death for black magic and shunned, Rachel Morgan has three days to somehow get to the annual witches convention in San Francisco and clear her name. If she fails, the only way she can escape death is to live in the demonic ever after . . . for ever after.

Banned from the flight lists, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack, headed for the West Coast for his own mysterious business. But Rachel isn’t the only passanger along for the ride. Can a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy in one car survive for over 2,300 miles? And that’s not counting the assassin on their tail.

A fearsome demon walks the sunlight, freed after centuries of torment to slay the innocent and devour souls. But his ultimate prey is Rachel Morgan. While the powerful witch with nerves of steel will do whatever it takes to stay alive, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.

Review:

There is so much I love about this series! Kim Harrison’s characters are so well-developed and vibrant that I could clearly see the ragtag group as they drove from one chaotic event to the next.

Poor Rachel never gets a break. If the witches aren’t trying to kill her, there are demons trying to manipulate each other for control over her and her potential offspring. Then there’s Trent’s mysterious quest that seems to become more and more dangerous to his travel-mates with each mile travelled.

Personally, I’m happy that Rachel’s romance with Pierce has taken a back-burner in this book. We get a small tast of what Rachel/Al and Rachel/Trent relationships could look like and I have to admit that I’m a Rachel/Trent fan.  I forgot to mention the potential for a Rachel/Ivy relationship in my last review, but while I understand Rachel’s temptation there, I don’t see it ever being fulfilled.

I really enjoyed this book. I especially liked the soul-searching that Rachel went through to finally come to terms with who and what she really is. Author Kim Harrison also did a fantastic job in surprising me at the end with the result of Trent’s quest.  I’m not sure if I was wearing blinders or something, but I didn’t see it coming.  If you’ve enjoyed the other books in this series, I’m sure you’ll love Pale Demon. Now I’m just waiting for the Feb. 21, 2012 launch of A Perfect Blood!

Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it! Or Chapter Two or Three!

The first thing that Christine became aware of was her aching head. Initially, she thought it was a hangover from drinking too much wine with Sarah the night before, but then she remembered the drive down to the border, the strange old couple, and the car running out of gas. The last thing she actually remembered clearly was walking down the road, shivering from the cold, then feeling a strange sense of calmness settle over her. She vaguely remembered being hit from behind.

Before opening her eyes, she listened to the sounds around her. There was water dripping some distance away, and someone breathing raggedly nearby. It sounded like the person was right beside her.

She cautiously opened her eyes and immediately became aware of the cold hard floor beneath her. She groaned a little as the world spun around her. It must have been a blow to the head that had knocked her unconscious.

“You’re okay. You’ve got a bump on your head, but it’s not serious,” said a deep male voice beside her. The man was wheezing a bit, as though he had a cold.

Christine sat up and looked at the man sitting beside her. He was dressed in what appeared to be old, but still serviceable, clothing. His dark hair was longish, not quite down to his shoulders, curly and tousled. His eyes were a deep chocolate brown and he was grinning at her like a little kid. He wasn’t a little kid though, he appeared to be close to her age.

Her surroundings weren’t so reassuring. Stone walls surrounded her, the perfect complement to the stone floor below and cold stone ceiling above. She was obviously in a prison of some sort. The problem was that she had no idea how she had gotten there.

The man sharing the cell with her must have sensed her confusion.

“They brought you in yesterday afternoon,” he said, “My name’s Gervis.” He held out his hand to her for a moment. Then as if realizing that she was too stunned to take it, he lowered it to his side, self-consciously.

“Where am I? And who brought me here?”

“Well, unfortunately, you’re in Lord Radek’s dungeon. His men brought you in yesterday.”

“Lord Radek? What are we, in nineteenth century Britain?” Christine was getting upset.

Gervis looked confused. He didn’t have time to explain, however, as there came from the hallway the sound of heavy boots approaching. The heavy wooden door swung inward into the cell with a creak.

“Girl! You come with us!” a rough, unshaven man, dressed in clothing much less serviceable than Gervis’, demanded in a gruff and strangely accented voice.

Christine was torn between two bad choices. She could smell the pungent odour emanating from the two men from inside the cell, but the cell wasn’t such a great place to be either. Her hesitation didn’t impress her jailers at all. The man who had spoken first grabbed her roughly by the arm, then dragged her to her feet and out into the hall. Strangely, the two men left the door ajar behind her, leaving her with the suspicion that perhaps Gervis wasn’t a prisoner after all. She heard him utter a weak “Good luck,” after her before she was hauled up a steep set of stone stairs. From what she could see as she passed, the walls were all made of stone and damp with moisture. Green moss was prevalent in some places and she wrinkled her nose at the smell of old and decaying things.

After walking through several hallways, each gradually improving in condition, she was finally pushed into a room that was much more extravagant than what she had seen thus far. It had several colourful tapestries on the walls and the floor appeared to be made of marble. Two huge fireplaces lined either side of the room and the furniture, while old fashioned, was plush and obviously expensive. The room looked like it had been designed from a picture in a book about old castles.

Her eyes finally rested on the lone occupant of the room. He was tall, pale, and had long, greasy black hair. What made her breath catch in her throat was his eyes. They were an astonishingly vibrant shade of green. She had never seen anything like them. It was as if someone had plucked out his real eyes and inserted two perfect emeralds instead. They almost seemed to glow from within and she felt somewhat mesmerised by them.

“So . . . you are the new visitor from the fog, hmmmm?” His voice was low and rough, and would have been seductive had Christine not felt that there was something slightly unstable in his tone.

She nodded her head dumbly, wondering what the fog had to do with any of this, but she was too afraid to ask. The way he was staring at her made her feel decidedly uncomfortable. His intense green eyes seemed to be looking inside her and it was almost as if he were searching for something. Finally, he spoke.

“I am Lord Radek. You were brought here last night. We found you wandering alone on the road to Donner. I know you have come through the fog. That makes you a very special visitor.”

“I’ve never heard of Donner. We were just outside of Thunder Bay when we ran out of gas.” Christine was confused, and now more than a little afraid.

“I know things are a little strange for you right now. But you will soon become used to your new situation. You see, the fog travellers are a gift to me. You are a gift to me. Normally, I keep my gifts in the room in which you awoke, but,” Lord Radek walked closer to Christine, grasped her chin steady in his icy fingertips and stared deeply into her eyes, “I think you deserve some nicer accommodations.”

Christine wanted to tell him that she was no one’s gift, but the words stuck in her throat. As she stared at him, he smiled reassuringly at her and she felt a seductive sense of relaxation overcome her. Her only thought was that he wasn’t actually threatening her in any way. She looked at him curiously.

“How am I a gift?”

Lord Radek just continued to smile at her. The look in his eyes was almost searching and he appeared to be considering something. Finally, he nodded his head and spoke.

“I look forward to getting to know you better, Christine. If you wait here for a moment, I will arrange to have you brought to your new room.”

He stepped just outside a different door on the left side of the room and Christine could hear him speaking softly to someone in the hall. She hoped it wasn’t the dirty men who had brought her up from that cell. She didn’t want them touching her anymore.

A slightly plump, kind-looking woman entered the room. She looked Christine over, almost in the same way someone would inspect a prized horse. She seemed to notice Christine’s confusion and she smiled reassuringly at her. “Now, you just come with me. I’m Giselle and I’ll help to make you comfortable,” she said.

Christine followed her obediently. Passing Lord Radek in the hall, he stopped her and absently brushed a stray piece of hair off of her cheek with surprisingly gentle hands.

“You really are quite beautiful, Christine. Very special,” he whispered in his seductive voice. He released her and stepped back into the room, leaving Christine with Giselle.

The hallway in which she now found herself was quite different from the ones through which she had been dragged following her awakening in the dungeons. These walls were clear of any moisture and they, like the extravagant room in which she had met Lord Radek, were covered in elegant tapestries. Giselle led Christine up a staircase at the end of the hall and then down another grand hallway in the upper level. Finally, they stopped in front of a thick wooden door that Giselle unlocked with a key. Christine entered a bedroom that was just as beautifully furnished as the fancy room downstairs. It was amazing. There was a huge four-post bed against one wall and a lovely dressing table opposite it. The only other furnishings were a large, ornate wardrobe and a fireplace.

Looking around her, thinking about how different this room was from the one in which she had awoken, Christine remembered the kind man from the dungeons.

“Who was the man who was with me when I woke up?” she asked Giselle timidly.

“Ahh, that must have been Gervis,” Giselle smiled fondly. “He‘s Lord Radek’s manservant. He just goes down there to make sure that new … guests are okay, especially if they have any injuries when they arrive. I’m sure you’ll see him around the castle, but you mustn’t speak to him. Gervis is a gentle soul and I wouldn’t want to see him get into trouble with Lord Radek.”

“Oh, but I would never … “ Christine didn’t even have time to finish before Giselle swept out of the room. There was a clicking noise after the door shut behind her, and Christine rushed over only to discover that it had been locked.

Something Giselle had said struck Christine as strange and she hurried over to the window and looked out. There, below her, was a grand courtyard. This really was a castle! Christine shook her head, as if to clear it. Maybe she had been hit harder than she had originally thought. How could she be in a castle? There were no castles within a thousand kilometres of Thunder Bay. Had she been transported to Europe while she was unconscious? The very idea was crazy. Her eyes rose to the horizon and she gasped at what she saw.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Hello?” a familiar male voice came through the door, “are you alright in there?”

It sounded like the man that Giselle had identified as Gervis. Christine looked up from the bed where she had been sitting in stunned silence for the last half hour. She got up and ran swiftly over to the door.

“Gervis? Is that you?”

“Yes, are you okay?” Christine heard a note of concern in the familiar voice.

“What’s happening, Gervis? Is this a dream? How hard did I hit my head?”

“Wait there, I’ll come to you in a few minutes and explain everything.”

She heard Gervis’ footsteps echo back down the hallway and stared at the closed door. Was this some kind of dream or nightmare? She was trapped in a castle, held captive by some sort of medieval lord. The last thing she remembered before she had lost consciousness on the road was worrying that Sarah’s cold was getting so much worse. It now appeared that Christine was the one in dire need of help.

She heard a noise coming from behind the wall opposite the window. There was a brief clicking sound and a section of the wall swung into her room, almost silently. There stood Gervis, grinning at her with a proud expression on his face.

Impulsively, Christine ran over and hugged him. Then she realized what she was doing and, chagrined, stepped back. Gervis’ smile was bigger than ever.

“Are you okay?” Gervis touched her cheek gently, in the same place that Lord Radek had stroked it, but this time she felt a slight thrill rush through her body. Giselle was right, Gervis was a very gentle person. Having him there with her made her feel safer somehow.

“I’m confused, but okay I think. Unless I’m suffering from a concussion and a whole series of hallucinations. Then I am definitely not okay.”

Gervis chuckled, “I’m afraid not. This is real. I know it’s going to be hard to believe, but this is really happening. I’d try to explain everything to you, but I think it would just confuse you even more, and maybe even frighten you. I think you should just get used to things one step at a time.”

“But Lord Radek … ”

“Don’t worry about him for now. He’s just left the castle for a few days. You’ll be safe for now. That’s one of the reasons I’ve risked coming to you this way. He’s usually very aware of everything that goes on under his roof. And he would not approve of my visiting you. I don’t know who would suffer more for it, me or you.”

“Who is he?”

“He’s the ruler in these parts. He manages the village and the surrounding areas. He’s just left overnight for a visit to my parents. He’s trying to find out if anyone else came through the fog last night.”

Christine thought of Sarah, but still didn’t trust Gervis completely, despite his apparent courage in coming to see her and her obvious attraction to him.

“You said that was one of the reasons you came here. What was the other?” Christine looked at Gervis, surprised to find herself almost flirting with him. He blushed.

“Well, you looked so pretty and vulnerable in the dungeons. I couldn’t take my eyes off you when you were unconscious. I was afraid that you would disappear like a vision. We don’t have many women come through the fog alone, let alone any who look … like you. I guess Lord Radek saw that you were different from the other fog visitors as well,” Gervis looked chagrined, “he’s never allowed anyone out of the dungeons before that I can remember.”

Christine just stared at him intently, trying to read some sort of coherent explanation for her current situation out of his words. She felt as if she should feel flattered somehow, but she was lost in such a pool of confusion that she could make no sense of it at all.

There was a noise in the hall and Gervis nearly jumped out of his skin. He strode quickly to the opening in the wall and, as it shut behind him, Christine heard him whisper “I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.” Then she was alone again, if only for a moment.

The door to her room opened and Giselle marched in, carrying a covered tray. She set it down on the gorgeous redwood dressing table and motioned for Christine to sit down and eat. All business, she marched back out, without saying a word, the door locking behind her.

Christine sat down to eat and pondered her situation. First Lord Radek had mentioned the fog, and now Gervis had mentioned it too. They must be talking about that thick fog that she and Sarah had driven through the other night. It had been very strange, but it was hard to believe that it had the ability to transport her anywhere, which was what both men had seemed to be implying. She nibbled on a piece of dark bread as she tried to work out what was going on. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

After eating a few slices of bread with a deliciously strong-tasting white cheese, Christine felt herself overwhelmed with lethargy. She knew that she had been through quite a traumatic experience over the past twenty-four hours and she decided to lie down and get some rest, hoping against hopes that she would wake up in her own bed.

His hands were on her, touching her, gently stroking first her arms and then her legs. It was so relaxing, so sensual. This was the most delicious dream that Christine had had in a very long time.

“Oh, meine Christine,” murmured a deep gravely voice, “Lassen Sie mich Sie lieben.”

Christine couldn’t understand the words, but the feelings that went with them were full of sensuous warmth and love. She felt warm lips on her wrists, making a trail up her arm, over her shoulder to her neck. His kiss there was exquisite, better than any lovemaking she had ever experienced before. It was like a never ending peak of pleasure that just trailed on and on forever.

When Christine opened her eyes she was very disoriented for a moment. The room was unfamiliar. She wasn’t in her own bed like she had hoped she would be as she had been drifting off. She was still in the castle dream.

Dream? Did she dream while she slept? Christine felt a wave of warm embarrassment rush through her and she closed her eyes for a moment. What a dream! She thought it was no coincidence that she’d had a dream like that right after meeting Gervis. He wasn’t the type of man she normally encountered – sleek, smart, ambitious and aggressive. Gervis was more the nice guy type, but more handsome than most. Most guys that she knew who were that good-looking were very full of themselves, but there was something both shy and unassuming about Gervis. She smiled as she thought of him. At least there was something to smile about in this whole crazy situation. She couldn’t wait to tell Sarah about him.

Sarah! Christine had totally forgotten about her sister, left feverish and sleeping in the back of their broken-down car. She had to get back to the car to find her. Of course, there was a locked door separating her from her freedom. Maybe Gervis could help with that. She was looking forward to seeing him again. Maybe she could convince him to leave with her.

Christine heard someone at the door and finally got out of bed. Giselle strode angrily into the room and slammed a tray down onto her dressing table. Christine noticed that the tray she had eaten from the night before was gone. Someone must have come in while she was asleep last night and taken it.

Giselle began to storm back out of the room, but she paused at the door for a moment, then spun around to face Christine. She had a look of utter fury on her face.

“I warned you to stay away from Gervis!” she spit at Christine, “It’s all your fault that he’s in trouble now! If you expected him to come visit you again you can just forget it!” Then she stormed out.

Shocked at the unexpected outburst, Sarah sat back down on the bed. Gervis was in trouble because of her! Somehow, someone must have found out about his visit to her yesterday evening. Numbly, she walked over to the dressing table and sat down. Nibbling on a piece of fruit, she thought carefully about her situation. From what Giselle had said, Gervis wasn’t going to be able to help her get out of here. She was going to have to depend on herself. The question now was how she was supposed to do that.

She ate her breakfast, expecting it to help wake her up. Despite having slept so long the night before, she was still exhausted. After finishing her meal with a glass of milk, she walked over to the wall from which Gervis had emerged the night before.

It was solid stone. If she hadn’t seen Gervis come out of there with her own eyes, she never would have believed that there was a door there at all. There didn’t seem to be any way to open it from her side, no matter where or what she prodded or poked. Finally, her exhaustion overwhelmed her and she lay back down on the bed, thinking to examine the wall again more thoroughly after a short nap.

She was almost asleep when she heard a noise at the wall and the door swung open. She sat up with a smile, expecting her visitor to be Gervis. Her face froze when the figure stepped into the room. It was Lord Radek!

Read Chapter 5 next Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 . . .

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here. Right now the pdf version is only $0.99!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Title: Black Magic Sanction

Author: Kim Harrison

ISBN:  9780061138034

Pages: 487

Release Date: February 23, 2010

Publisher: Eos

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Source:  Library

Rating: 5.0/5

Summary:

Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter—and lived to tell the tale. But she’s never faced off against her own kind . . . until now.

Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment—her worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery. Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom. But trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and a lowlife ex-boyfriend-turned-thief.

Review:

I’ve been waiting to get back to this series for awhile. This was the last book I read from Kim Harrison, and now I remember how frustrated I was last time I finished it and couldn’t get my hands on the next one right away. When it comes to books, especially in a series, I’m all about instant gratification. So I hope you’ll understand when I try to keep this review short. I have the next book, Pale Demon, ready to go and I’m not sure how long I can keep it out of my hot little hands.

I hope I’ve managed to convey how much I loved Black Magic Sanction. Things have changed drastically in the life of Rachel Morgan – her own people, the witches, are trying to kill her. A sense of urgency can be felt throughout the novel and I’m not embarrassed to admit that I was brought to tears at one point. I had a really hard time putting this book down, and even found myself trying to read while doing dishes. You get a good look into Rachel’s inner psyche, her fears about her demonic side and her insecurities when it comes to men. I wonder who Rachel will end up with. Will it be the gentlemanly Pierce, who spent more than a decade watching her before she even knew he was there? Maybe the love-hate relationship she seems to have with Trent will finally come to fruition. My newest suspicion is that she may end up having a fling with Al, her demon mentor. Al throws a lot of innuendos at Rachel and perhaps she’ll see it as a way of keeping her demon children with her (if she has them) instead of having them killed/kidnapped by the witches, or stolen by the demons.

Kim Harrison is a fantastic writer who has created an amazingly realistic parallel universe, richly developed characters and some of the best dialogue I’ve read. Swearing pixies make me giggle every time.

Despite one semi-steamy scene, I’d have no problem letting my 14 year-old read this book. I’d recommend it as a great read for teens or adults alike.

Still speaking through the closed window, trying to see more of the man, she said, “I was just trying to make some noise for my sister to hear.  She should be right back.”

The lie sounded obvious. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, she told herself, and she was still hoping that her sister would return soon.

As the man gazed searchingly into the car, Sarah mentally kicked herself again.

‘Way to go!’ she berated herself, ‘Now he knows you’re alone!’

“Car break down?” the man asked.

Sarah noticed his relaxed way of speaking. He didn’t seem like someone about to do violence. She would expect to hear more of a nervous pitch to his voice if he was. Then again, psychopaths in particular were known for their lack of emotion.

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘if he meant to do me harm, the window isn’t really going to stop him. There have got to be rocks around that could break through pretty quickly.’ Of course, if she had been thinking that clearly before she had started honking the horn, then she wouldn’t have this problem at all.

She rolled the window down half way.  The chilly November air swept into the car.

“Thanks for stopping. I’m sure my sister will be back soon,” she said, trying both to give the impression that she was not alone and to give the man the opportunity to leave. At that point, something struck her as strange. She rolled the window down the rest of the way and leaned out. Looking around, she couldn’t see another car in sight.

“How did you find me?” she asked, puzzled.

“Well, you were kind of hard to miss, with that horn blaring away,” the man said, with a twinkle in his emerald eyes, “I’m Hillard, by the way.”

“It’s nice to meet you Hillard. I’m Sarah,” she replied absently, the she looked him in the eyes. “But what I meant to ask was: how did you get here? I don’t see a car.”

He continued smiling at her, his eyes twinkling as if she had said something funny. “I was camping in the woods over that way.” He motioned to the other side of the road. “I just walked over to see what all the ruckus was about.”

That seemed like a plausible explanation to Sarah and she decided to ask, “Is this a road off of Highway 61 between Thunder Bay and the border? Christine and I – that’s my sister – got stuck in the fog last night and I can’t seem to figure out where we are.”

An unreadable expression crossed Hillard’s face as she spoke.  If Sarah had to guess, she would have said that it was something between recognition and pity.

“Well, if you follow this road, you will eventually come to Thunder … Bay,” Hillard paused hesitantly between the two words and Sarah experienced the same sense of suspicion and unease that she had experienced at the house of Gerwin and Elke.

Sarah didn’t know what to do next. He was obviously hiding something.  She knew that she needed help, but she didn’t know if she could trust him. Getting out of the car could be dangerous.

“So, do you have a car out here?” she asked, thinking that maybe she could trust him just enough to give her a ride into town.

“Nooo,” he said slowly, looking wary, “I’ve been hiking. I have a bit of wanderlust. I like to travel cross country on foot.”

‘So now he’s homeless!  Great!’ thought Sarah.

“I guess you haven’t seen my sister around, have you?” she said aloud.

“What does she look like?”

“She’s three years younger than me. Prettier than I am. She has long curly blond hair and blue eyes. She’s a bit taller than me too.”

“Well, to be honest, I haven’t seen anyone for a few days. I’d be happy to help you to look for her though. There are some rough types who travel on this road,” Hillard looked genuinely concerned.

Sarah considered his offer for a moment. This guy was a complete stranger who had freely admitted that he was homeless. That didn’t really fill her with confidence. On the other hand, she had to go out and look for her sister soon. Hillard looked like the kind of guy who would follow her anyway just to make sure she was okay.

That last thought made her pause. He did seem like the kind of guy who would watch out for her, and not cause her harm. She thought for a moment in silence before finally deciding to trust her instincts.

“Okay,” she said, getting out of the car, “let me just grab our stuff from the trunk. She went that way. I think that’s towards the city.”

Hillard nodded, followed Sarah to the trunk, and took one of the backpacks from her. Sarah stuffed the emergency blanket into her backpack and after a moment’s thought, added the first aid kit. She also grabbed the sandwiches that Elke had made for them earlier.

Outside of the car now, Sarah had the opportunity to get a better look at Hillard. His eyes were extraordinary, but the rest of him was not bad either. He had a really kind looking face and was a few inches taller than she was. He was wearing a worn leather jacket that buttoned in the front, dark pants, and had a large leather bag slung over his shoulder. All in all, he was a pretty good-looking guy.

They started down the road in silence. Sarah had her flashlight, but kept it off most of the time to save the batteries. Every so often, Sarah would steal a furtive glance over at Hillard. He seemed nice enough.

“So,” she finally asked, “Where are you from originally?”

He smiled, almost wistfully. “Zwischenmeer.”

“Never heard of it,” she said, “It sounds foreign.”

He just smiled and did not respond.

“What brings you here?” asked Sarah. The question seemed to give him pause. She watched as what looked like several emotions passed across his face.

Finally, he answered, “Family.”

“Brothers and sisters?”

“More distant than that, although sometimes he feels closer.”

That was definitely an enigmatic response. Then, Hillard looked over at her and asked, “Do you only have the one sister? Or are there more of you?” This last question he asked with a smile. The corners of his mouth crinkled and Sarah could see tiny laugh lines around his eyes.

“Just the two of us,” she replied, “Our parents died when we were younger. My dad died of liver disease when I was only 16. I don’t remember much about him except that he drank a lot and yelled at our mom. My mom died of breast cancer three years ago. Since then, it’s just been me and Christine.”

“So, you’re close?”

“We’re best friends, as well as sisters. She’s always been there for me when I needed her – especially recently.” Sarah’s face darkened as she remembered the events of Friday morning.

Hillard looked at her quizzically but, before he could ask any more questions, Sarah changed the subject. “She’s always been the pretty one though. Guys chase after her all the time. Not that she ever gives any of them a chance.” Sarah smiled. “She says she’s waiting for a guy with substance, whatever that means.” Her smile turned wistful. “I never imagined that I would get married before she did.”

“You’re married?” If Sarah did not know better, she would have thought that Hillard looked disappointed.

“Was … is … not so much anymore,” she replied lamely.

“Sounds complicated.”

“Yeah, well, maybe Christine had the right idea when she waited.”

“So what, exactly, did you mean when you said that Christine was the pretty one? That’s the second time you’ve said that. I think you’re very pretty.” Hillard smiled at her and Sarah was surprised to feel her heart skip a beat at the unexpected compliment.

Sarah allowed her walking to take her to the side of the road, where she started kicking rocks self-consciously. She didn’t answer for a moment. She never knew how to answer those kinds of questions. They always seemed so loaded and fake. Plus, the feelings left over from Friday morning were just too raw.

As if sensing that this was a delicate subject for her at the moment, Hillard fell silent, and Sarah became absorbed by her own thoughts again.

After opening the door to her house, she had stopped in the entranceway, frozen in shock. Her neighbour, Judy, had been standing in her kitchen. Judy had been wearing Sarah’s bathrobe. As she turned towards Sarah in surprise, the bathrobe fell open at the top, and Sarah could see that Judy wasn’t wearing anything underneath the robe. Not surprisingly, the robe looked fantastic on the slender Judy – better than it had ever looked on Sarah.

Stunned, Sarah couldn’t figure out what Judy was doing in her kitchen half-naked. Her mind just wasn’t processing the visual information. Then Paul came out of the bedroom, wearing nothing but his white boxer shorts. He looked over to see what Judy was looking at and saw Sarah.

“What’re you doing home? You’re supposed to be at work!” he started shouting, accusingly, obviously trying to deflect the situation in her direction.  

Sarah’s first instinct was to defend herself and then she was overwhelmed with guilt at coming home without having earned any money for the day. Then an intense anger overwhelmed her. An icy cold feeling flooded through her skull and she couldn’t even speak. She just stared at the two of them for a moment, her lips pressed tightly together, then she spun around, stormed outside and went back to her car. She pulled out of the driveway and began to drive around aimlessly, turning from street to street, unsure of where to go next. She had been driving around this for what felt like an immeasurable amount of time when she finally found herself in front of Christine’s apartment building. 

Christine had been home for lunch, but she had called in sick for the rest of the day after she saw the devastated look on Sarah’s face. It had been Christine who had gone back to the house on Oliver Road to get Sarah’s things. It had been Christine who had held her while she sobbed. And it had been Christine who had ordered Chinese take-out and opened the first bottle of wine. Her sister always seemed to know what to do to help.

Now how was Sarah going to help Christine? How could she have let her sister go off by herself like that? The next time Sarah kicked a rock from the side of the road, it was in anger, not self pity.

“You okay?” asked Hillard. He was looking at her with compassion, as if sensing that she was going through a rough time.

“I can’t believe I just let her go off by herself. I just fell asleep in the back of the car and didn’t wake up for hours.  I just …”  Sarah broke off with a fit of coughing. She had almost forgotten about her cold in her worry about Christine..

“That doesn’t sound good. The cough, I mean, not the sleeping in the back of the car. Maybe that’s where I should have left you. If you’re sick, the cold air could make you worse.”

Sarah rolled her eyes at him. “I’m fine. It’s just a cold. My sister is the one we should be worrying about. She might be out here in the dark, all alone. And I don’t see how we could possibly catch up with her, since she left hours ago.”

Suddenly, instead of a rock, her foot connected with something metallic. It made a clunking noise as it hit a large rock off to the side of the road. Sarah’s eyes opened wide as she gasped and bent down to retrieve the object. It was dented now, and the screen was broken in two places. But there was no mistaking what it was. It was the cell phone she had given to Christine before she had left the car.

Read Chapter 4 next Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 . . .

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here. Right now the pdf version is only $0.99!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Title:  Ghost Story

Author:  Jim Butcher

ISBN:  978-0451463791

Pages: 496

Release Date:  July 26, 2011

Publisher:  Roc Hardcover

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Source:  Library

Rating:  4.0/5

 Summary:

When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic…

Review:

I’m not sure if reading Ghost Story right on the heels of Changes was a great idea. Changes had an amazing intensity that was curiously lacking in this story. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Ghost Story; I think Harry will come away from his ghostly experience with a wealth of new knowledge and some new tricks to boot.  I just felt like I spent most of my time waiting for answers, instead of being distracted by Harry’s normal hijinks. The answers were there, make no doubt about it, but I felt disconnected from my other favourite characters.

Interesting thought there. Perhaps Butcher meant the reader to experience Harry’s feeling of disconnect from his friends. After all, Harry is a ghost now (I don’t think I’m giving anything away, considering the title) and has a major disconnect from reality of his own to deal with.

All in all, Ghost Story is a little different from the norm. I’ll have to give it a reread before the next book, Cold Days (release date still to be announced), and I might have a totally different feeling about it then. I only dropped it one star from Changes 5.0, because it was still a fantastic book – I just felt a little, tiny bit of let down after all of the excitement of Changes.

Sarah retrieved the clothes she had been wearing yesterday from a chair in the corner and put them on slowly. Her head ached and the bright morning sunlight streaming through the bedroom window was only making things worse. She had noticed when she awoke that Christine wasn’t in the room and, listening carefully, she could hear her voice, and her cheerful laughter, coming from downstairs.

Sarah went downstairs. She could smell coffee and that distinctive aroma was something that could always get her moving in the morning, headache or not. It wasn’t just her head that was aching – her whole body seemed to hurt this morning.  This cold was really doing a number on her. Of course, she hadn’t done her immune system any favours by drinking so copiously with Christine on Friday night, but it was something that had been necessary, dammit! It’s not every day that you discover that your marriage is a sham.

Sarah pushed those negative thoughts back out of her mind as she entered the kitchen. Elke was bustling around the kitchen and the smells coming from the stovetop were heavenly to her growling stomach. Sarah was relieved to note that, despite her cold, she was starving.

Christine handed her a hot cup of black coffee as Sarah sat down at the table with her and Gerwin. She had a peculiar look on her face, which contrasted starkly with the cheerful laughter Sarah had just heard as she had been coming down the stairs.

“I think we should probably just head back to Thunder Bay today, Sarah. I doubt we have enough time today to really enjoy the spa, anyway.” Christine looked anxious to leave.

Sarah looked at Christine carefully over her coffee mug. The coffee was wonderfully soothing to her sore throat, but she was distracted by concern about what could have spooked her sister.

“Sure. It looks like the weather has cleared up nicely.” It was true – the sun was shining as brightly as ever and there wasn’t any hint of the fog that had so enveloped everything the day before.

Christine glanced over at Gerwin. “I was just asking Gerwin how long the construction had been going on around here. He said that this road has always been gravel.”

Sarah walked over to the window and just stared outside for a moment. She was positive that the road down to the border was paved all the way. Had they somehow turned off onto another road? That would explain the traffic, or lack thereof.

She turned to Gerwin, “Is this a side road off of the main highway to the border?”

He looked uncomfortable. “Might be. You should probably just drive straight back the way you came. I’m sure you’ll find your way.”

Sarah was sure he was lying, or at least not telling them about something. She just had no idea why on earth he would lie about the road. Before she could ask him about it, Elke came into the room, carrying a platter of eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes. Sarah ate quietly, thinking about all of the strange things she had noticed since they had met Gerwin and Elke. She silently debated with herself whether she should confront the couple, but decided against it, since they had provided such kind and undemanding hospitality. Once she had finished her breakfast she carried her plate into the kitchen and went upstairs to get her bag. Christine followed.

“Something weird is going on here,” Christine whispered to Sarah.

“I know … don’t worry about it. We’ll be out of here in a few minutes and then it’s not our problem.” They quickly tossed their few belongings back into their backpacks and, all packed and ready to go, the two women took deep breaths and went downstairs to say goodbye to their strange hosts. Elke had prepared sandwiches for them for the road.

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m sure we’ll be home before lunchtime,” Sarah protested.

“Never you mind. You never know when you might get a bit of hunger in your belly.”

As Sarah took the sandwiches from Elke, she suddenly felt herself enveloped in the woman’s large embrace.

“Be safe,” Elke whispered in her ear and then abruptly let her go and walked swiftly into the kitchen. Gerwin looked uncomfortable.

“Well, have a nice trip,” he said, not looking them in the eye, “Watch out for strangers.”

Sarah and Christine just looked at each other, mumbled their thanks for the hospitality and quickly walked outside to the car. The Grand Am looked the same as ever, if a bit more dusty than when they had left the city the day before. They tossed their overnight bags into the trunk and got in. Sarah noticed that the gas gauge was hovering just above the line reading E for empty.

“We’ll have to stop at the first gas station we see.”

As they drove off, in the same direction from which they had arrived the night before, Sarah looked back and saw Elke peeking out of the window with what looked like a worried expression on her face.

“What the heck was going on back there?” Sarah said out loud, more confused than ever.

The girls spent the next little while discussing the various things that had bothered them about the couple during their brief stay with them. Besides their seriously rustic living conditions, there was the fact that Gerwin and Elke had seemed so reluctant to discuss their past, and had seemed to be speaking in a different language the night before.

“Maybe they’re here illegally from another country,” suggested Christine with a shrug, “That would explain pretty much everything.”

“Except for the fact that they seemed even weirder just as we were leaving,” insisted Sarah.

She finally let out a slow sigh and decided to drop the subject. The odd couple was behind them now. It wasn’t really any of their business if Gerwin and Elke were in the country illegally. What was starting to concern her now was the fact that this dirt road wasn’t turning into a paved one and she didn’t see anyplace where they could have turned off of the main highway by accident in the fog. She also hadn’t seen any other houses since they left Gerwin and Elke’s cottage twenty-five kilometres back. Given that it was only about a sixty-kilometre drive from Thunder Bay to the border in the first place, they had come quite a distance without passing any traffic, houses, or heck, even a moose!

Sarah didn’t want to panic Christine, so she focussed on the road. To either side she saw only thick forest. In the distance she saw what might have been a big hill or a small mountain. It could have been Mount McKay, another one of Thunder Bay’s landmarks. If so, they must be coming around the back side of it, because Thunder Bay would be visible by now if they were at the front.  It looked vaguely familiar, but not enough so as to provide her with their current location.

It was at that moment that the car decided to sputter and stall. As the car rolled to a stop, Sarah swore under her breath. All she really wanted at that moment was to be back under some warm covers, nursing her cold – she would even have settled for the weirdness of Gerwin and Elke’s house if she could just get some rest. This road trip idea had turned into a complete disaster.

Christine looked worriedly over at Sarah. Sarah’s face was flushed, and not just from anger at the car. It was obvious to her that Sarah was at a breaking point – had been for the last few days, in fact. Somehow, luck was just not going their way at all. She put the back of her hand to Sarah’s forehead.

“Jesus, Sarah, you’re burning up. You shouldn’t have been driving. You should’ve told me, I would’ve driven.”

“Well, it’s too late now. This car isn’t going anywhere without some gas,” Sarah snapped irritably.

“How about you just lay here in the car and rest for a bit? Grab the emergency blanket and curl up in the back seat. I’ll take a walk and see if I can track someone down or maybe even find a gas station.”

Sarah felt guilty about letting her little sister go off by herself, but had to agree that she wasn’t in very good shape herself. She shrugged and let Christine lead her to the back seat and cover her with the emergency blanket. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but at this point she wasn’t in any position to complain. She just needed some rest. Sarah couldn’t remember having felt this sick in a long time.

Just before Christine started off, Sarah had a thought.

“Wait a minute,” she said, “I‘m such a dumb-ass. My cell phone is in the glove compartment. We should be close enough to the city for a signal now. Try that first, before walking out on your own.”

Christine retrieved the cell phone from the glove box and turned it on. Sarah had been keeping it off since Friday, just in case Paul had tried to call. There was no signal at all, not even a single bar. Christine tried it at various points around the car without any success. Finally, Sarah gave up and agreed to let Christine start walking down the road.

“Make sure you take the phone with you though.  Try it every so often to see if you hit a good spot with a signal.”

With that last piece of advice, Sarah lay across the back seat of the car, curled up under the blanket, and fell fast asleep.  She was snoring before Christine was even out of view of the car.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Sarah awoke, she was disoriented. There was darkness all around her and she was shivering in the cold. It took her a few moments to realize that she was still lying in the back seat of her car.  It was pitch black outside and the temperature in the car had dropped substantially without the sun shining on it. She must have been asleep for hours!

Where was Christine?!  She should have been back by now!

Sarah jumped up and struggled her way out of the car. It was even colder outside and the brisk air did a quick job of waking her up the rest of the way. She could barely see anything by the light of the quarter moon, so she returned to the car and retrieved her flashlight from the glove compartment. That was one of the few good things her father had taught her – always have full emergency supplies in your car at all times. She shone the flashlight down the dark empty road. There was no sign of Christine, or anyone else for that matter. How could she have let her little sister go off by herself? They really had no idea where they were and there could be all sorts of dangers out there. Come to think of it, the prison was located right on the side of the same highway that led to the border.

‘Good job Sarah, send your sister out to be raped or murdered!’ she silently berated herself.

She called Christine’s name out into the darkness for a few minutes before stopping herself, realizing that if there were any unsavoury characters out in the night, they’d be able to hear her too. She quickly got back into the car and locked all of the doors. She wrapped her blanket around herself tightly and thought carefully about what to do next. The car, in its current state, was pretty useless. It wouldn’t be moving anywhere anytime soon without some gas.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She scrambled over the front seat and tried the radio. There was nothing but static. Now that was strange.  Sarah knew for a fact that there was radio reception all the way from Thunder Bay to the border. There should still be something, even if they had turned off of the main road. Hmmm. The radio wasn’t going to help. What would? In frustration, Sarah put her head into her hands and slumped forward. The horn beeped momentarily into the night.

Maybe someone would hear the horn. It couldn’t hurt to try. Even if there were people lurking out there in the dark night, she had the doors locked. She beeped the horn again briefly – then again. Finally, she just laid into it and left it blasting into the darkness for several minutes, until she could hear the tone of the horn starting to change, becoming lower and slower, then she sat back into her seat and took a deep breath to stop herself from screaming out in frustration.

‘Oh boy,’ she thought, ‘I should be careful not to kill the battery. With the luck I’ve had over the last few days, Christine would come back with gas and then we wouldn’t even have the battery power to start the damn thing!’

Tears of frustration welled in her eyes. Why did everything have to be so hard lately? It seemed like her life had just turned to shit over the past week. It hadn’t even been a week. It had all started on Friday morning as she arrived at work.

    Her boss had immediately seen that she was ill and had given her a stern warning about coming into work sick. Normally, Sarah would be glad to go home and sleep through the weekend to get rid of her cold, but she had used up all of her sick days and didn’t have any vacation days left. That meant that she would have to take unpaid time off. That would certainly make her husband, Paul, unhappy.

    Paul had been off work for the last six months, having been laid off from a local lumber mill. Finding another job for him hadn’t been as easy as they had hoped. The job market in Thunder Bay had been suffering for the last decade, due to a lumber trade dispute that Canada had been in with the United States. Most of Thunder Bay’s job market was dependant on raw material industries, so now there were too many unemployed people and not enough jobs for them. 

    Money had been seriously tight for them recently and it was beginning to take a toll on her marriage. Taking an unpaid day off of work was something she couldn’t afford – financially or emotionally. Heading home, she dreaded the inevitable confrontation with Paul.

    Sarah had pulled into the driveway and gone quietly into the house. These days it was Paul’s habit to sleep late. If she woke him, he would be cranky and even less pleasant to deal with. 

    She had frozen as she entered the house. Through the door to the kitchen, she had been able to see a woman looking into her fridge. It was her neighbour, Judy.

Sarah was startled out of her remembrances by a knock on the window beside her.

Read Chapter 3 next Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 . . .

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here.

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Title: Changes

Author:  Jim Butcher

ISBN:  978-0451463173

Pages:  448

Release Date:  April 6, 2010

Publisher:  Roc

Genre:  Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Suspence

Source:  Library

Rating: 5.0/5

Summary:

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden’s lover – until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it – against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry’s not fighting to save the world…

He’s fighting to save his child.

Review:

My first introduction to Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden was through the ill-fated television adaptation, entitled The Dresden Files.  When it was cancelled after a short first season, I was crushed.  Despite being an avid reader, I wasn’t clued into the fact that it was based on a series of books until a few years later.

During my pregnancy (2009-2010), I read through the series one book after another, and even brought an audio version of Changes that I had gotten from the library into the delivery room. Needless to say that even Harry’ snide wit and propensity to get into trouble couldn’t distract me. I didn’t even finish reading Changes for another week or so when I finally began to get more than one to two hours of sleep at a time.

When I decided that I wanted to add my own opinions on books to my website, I really didn’t know where to start.  I do have a list of books that have come out this year from my newest favourite authors, but don’t want to start cold in each series again. I decided to go back to Harry, to give him the uninterrupted attention that both he and Changes deserved to get from me the first time. I finished it in two and a half days and I’m so glad that I went back to it. Since my first, chaotic, read through, I had forgotten how much Changes really lives up to its name. The first chapter opens with the kicker:

I answered the phone, and Susan Rodriguez said, “They’ve taken our daughter.”

I sat there for a long five count, swallowed, and said, “Um. What?”

“You heard me, Harry,” Susan said gently.

“Oh,” I said. “Um.”

“The line isn’t secure,” she said. “I’ll be in town tonight. We can talk then.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”

I want to be really careful not to include any spoilers in this review, but I have to say that Harry loses almost everything that is important to him in this book.  He makes hard choices and this inevitably changes him as a person.  Jim Butcher has taken Harry to a whole new level and I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.

I can’t say that there is anything about this book that I disliked. The only concern I had was that there was one story point that I don’t feel got resolved. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that it directly ties into the ending, so I guess I’ll just have to go on to read Ghost Story to see if I’m right.

To conclude, Jim Butcher brings the reader through their own Changes as they read his book.  I went from emotion to emotion throughout the story, feeling like I was there, like I felt Harry’s urgency to find his daughter.  As always, Harry and his friends provided me with a few good laugh-out-loud moments and even one unexpected moment when I got goosebumps.  I recommend this book for anyone who likes a great story and doesn’t mind a cliffhanger at the end.