Off the Bookshelf: STORM SIREN by Mary Weber

WOW.

You want a gritty, painful fantasy set in a big, kind of frightening yet fascinating world?
You want a story that'll keep going because the ending of the story just guarantees more adventures of your heroine who has been pushed past the point of "enough" and keeps going?

Read STORM SIREN by Mary Weber.
This was the book offered along with the free book one Friday from B&N. It intrigued me, but I hesitated because, quite frankly, I have books numbering in the triple digits waiting to be read, print and electronic.

Then Mary posted on the Speculative page on Facebook and mentioned that was her book and ... that kinda changed things. I bought it on Nook and ... wow. It grabbed me from the first painful scene. Secrets within secrets, danger and war, vile creatures, misunderstood magic, prejudice, politics, treachery, slavery, villainy, and one wounded heroine who must grow past her wounds and self-hatred and fears.

You gotta read this book. You'll get pulled in. You'll get to the final scene and want to scream, just like I wanted to. And you'll probably be relieved that there's another book in the series coming.

Good job, Mary.

Off the Bookshelf: LADY OF INTEGRITY by Shelley Adina

I love Shelley Adina's Magnificent Devices series -- Steampunk with a smart, feisty heroine and a good dollop of humor.

Here in the seventh book in the series, Lady Claire is preparing for her wedding to Andrew Malvern -- finally! -- but gets sidetracked when Alice, Jake, and the Stalwart Lass get into trouble in Venice.

Lady Claire's recurring nemesis, the American millionaire Meriwethor-Astor, turns out to lend a hand ... without knowing he's doing so. We have fun, white-knuckle adventures with diving bells and underwater dirigibles, slave labor, evil bureaucrats, burning airships, and a couple of krakens thrown in for good measure.

Would somebody please tell our beloved author that she writes too slowly? More, more, more!

Off the Bookshelf: HOW LOVELY ARE THY BRANCHES, by Diane Duane

Okay, let me start out by saying Diane Duane does not write fast enough!

I love her Young Wizards series. No, it's not the American version of Hogwarts -- this is a learn-on-the-job kind of wizardry. It started with a young girl hiding from bullies by ducking into the library, and this book kind of nudged her to take it off the shelf. It was titled, "So You Want to be A Wizard."

The rest is history.

I'm not sure how I found her online bookstore, but every once in a while offers come through for revised editions of the previous books, and this year, a great Christmas present -- a short Christmas story in the Young Wizards series.

What do you do with a wizard from another universe who, quite frankly, looks like a Christmas tree? Well, in this story, you invite him to Earth for Christmas and decorate him!

Take my word for it, it's not as silly as it sounds, and there's a lot of profound thought as well as fun, mischief, humor, and a chance to meet up with old friends in this story. I loved it. And another great Christmas present was to hear that there will be a new Young Wizards book coming out. But of course, not soon enough!