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From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia’s hand went behind her back to caress the sword. Even sheathed she could feel its eagerness. She trembled to use it. The sword was her absolute authority; her absolute power. Every vampire it touched would die. She smiled a seductive smile over the crowd at her lover. The look he gave her back showed his trust, his pride, his respect and his love. She quivered at the look, and desired his touch. First, the battle. She grasped the buckle of the sheath, and released it as she gripped the hilt of her sword. The sheath fell from her body as she swung the sword over her shoulder. Natalia brought the sword in front of her, the hilt now in both hands. She allowed the blade to half hide her face then swiveled it slightly, making the edge run down the center of her face. She took a deep breath and bellowed for the Captain.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“Vincent?” Lorraine didn’t sound happy.

Vincent waved her voice away while he found his pants. His cell phone was in the front pocket. He took it out and there were no messages. It was past sunset. At the very least, Rebecca should have given him the ‘all clear’ call. There was nothing. He didn’t even have service. With a slight frown, Vincent dialed Rebecca’s number and hit the send button. He grew alarmed when his ear encountered dead air. He waited as Lorraine sat up and gave him an annoyed look.

“Vincent.” It was almost an order.

He slipped on his pants and hung up his phone. “Give me your phone.”

 “I don’t carry my phone into my bedroom.” She gave him an annoyed look and sounded as if she thought he shouldn’t either.

From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia walked the mile to her old house, and wished she knew how to drive. The walk was not pleasant. She was too worried about being caught unawares, but it still did not take her long to reach the house. The sun had not yet set behind the mountains, and she still had two hours before it did.

The place was a mess. Donald’s rig was parked in the driveway. The weeds around it were high, which proved it had been parked for a while. There was garbage strewn everywhere and the house needed to be painted. Natalia wondered if it had been this bad the last time she was here, but couldn’t clearly recall.

Natalia walked up the sagging steps with the cross held out in front of her and tried the door. It was unlocked. She opened it slowly and looked around. There were dishes and dirt and dust everywhere. A kitchen chair was overturned. Natalia walked to the living room. She stepped in carefully then dropped the cross. Her mother sat in the recliner and stared at a blank TV screen.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“No. But I suspected.” He went to Natalia, picked her up and carried her to his throne. He sat and cradled her to him, to comfort her. All he could do was caress her and kiss her neck and jawline. He would be without her for four days. Even with Lorraine at his beck and call, he would desire Natalia’s warm touch.

“You didn’t share your thoughts?”

“Didn’t feel the need – I need you. Come with me.”

He kissed her hard and made her straddle him; her legs hung over the dragon head armrests. Her breath was taken by his kiss.

“Come with me.” He repeated, his voice thick with emotion.

She answered breathlessly. “Why?”

“I need you.” He held her in place as his arms tightened around her.

In the past couple weeks or less I’ve read three books. I reviewed two with titles and authors, posted those to all my social media and tagged the authors to let them know I loved their books. The third one…. Yeah, no.

The third one was a great book. It was a good story, cool characters with cool powers, and a dude that could turn into A FUCKING DRAGON. I wanted to love this book; I really, really did. I couldn’t.

The writing was subpar. There were quite a few sentences that seemed jumbled. There were run on sentences that I had to skip over as I couldn’t decipher them. There were also a few ‘ifs’ and ‘ors’ used for ‘ofs’ and ‘its’. The writer also used the phrase “nose bridge’ instead of ‘bridge of my nose’. Some of this I can forgive. We all make mistakes, right? But those weren’t the worst.

The worst? The writer decided to use the word ‘humid’ instead of damp. Now, a lot of times, that’s an acceptable substitute. ‘The air felt damp,’ is a perfectly acceptable sentence. Well, try this one for size, ‘He brushed my humid hair out of my eyes.’

No, you didn’t read that wrong. That exact sentence, by the way, is not in the book, but that’s what the writer was using humid for: to describe wet hair (in a few places) and wet lawn (in a couple places).

I’ve made odd word choices before, I’m sure we all have. My most hated mistake, which I have thankfully not published, is deciding to use ‘head bow’ for a nod. Yeah, that’s terrible. I used that phrase a lot when I first started writing, and have since corrected that bad idea when I see the phrase as I’m editing. I don’t know what I was thinking. I really don’t, but I wanted to illustrate that we all, as I said, make mistakes.

But then we get editors, and they tell us what’s what. Yes, writers can override editor suggestions, but come on. It sounds like the writer may have used a thesaurus to find better/different words and then didn’t look up the meaning of the word.

To give the writer the benefit of the doubt, I tried to find out if English wasn’t their primary language. My mom is an immigrant. Though she has lived in the States for 50+ years, she still messes up words. That happens. That’s forgivable. I have found nothing on the writer that suggests English is their secondary language.

In short, it was enough of a poor word choice to stop me from buying any more of their books. Which is sad. It was a good story.

HE TURNED INTO A DRAGON. (Insert forlorn sigh.)

Genie on Fire is the third book in the Smoke and Mirrors series. It stars Lucy and Mal, two genies who have to hide who they are to the outside world for various reasons.

I find it interesting that the word ‘genie’ in the series is considered a slur, but the writer uses that word as part of the title for the books. I would have to assume it’s due to that fact that most readers are aware of what a ‘genie’ is and don’t always know the more esoteric forms of the word. But I digress.

In Genie on Fire, Lucy finds herself transforming into something completely different (trying not to have spoilers here). It’s a race against time to find the ‘cure’. Mal and Lucy end up in a lot of capers to help her out.

The book is well written, I like the characters and I want to know what happens next. I hope you take the time to read this series. It’s fun! You can find it here.

First off this is not a book written for someone my age. I’m 46 and do not have children (of any age). Its target audience is 9–12-year-olds. The book was largely predictable but that might be due to my age/experience. I saw the ending coming a mile away and the journey there was almost as predictable.

That shouldn’t stop anyone from reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It’s well written and fun to read. There is good character development and the interactions between the kids and the kids and grownups feel real.

The book takes place in Australia, therefore there are some expressions I didn’t understand, as I live in the United States. I visited Australia when I was 12, and some things, like the mention of a Vegemite sandwich, brought a smile to my lips. Also, I have to wonder if the phrase, “The yowie ate my baby” may have been a throwback to a real-life story I heard about when I was young. If you don’t know the reference, I’m not telling you. The possible reference made me laugh, but then, I have a dark sense of humor.

The book, as stated, takes place in Australia. It’s about Jacinta and her hunt for a yowie, a creature that is reminiscent of Big Foot. She is searching for it in the hopes of helping her detective mom so that they can move back home to Sydney. Along the way, she makes friends with kids her age. There is betrayal, a ‘mad scientist’, accidentally evil parents, and good parents as well.

Give it a read. I highly recommend this fun book. You can find it here.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“What I find interesting,” Vincent continued to pace, but slowly and more deliberately, “is that Anthony came to me five days ago with this information. I didn’t do anything about it because my hope was that one of you would find out about it as well. Your spies are worthless. You should have taken care of it yourselves. Anyone else would think you deliberately performed a poor job. How are you going to prove to me it wasn’t deliberate?”

“I have an idea.”

Vincent turned with a smile on his face. Natalia was back and looked beautiful in a pinstripe skirt suit and black stiletto heels. He was by her side in an instant, an inscrutable expression on his face. He spoke softly, only to her. “You didn’t tell me you were leaving.”

She placed her hand on his chest and kept her own voice soft. “I’m sorry Vincent. I had no choice.”

“There is always a choice.”

From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia shot up, and pulled away from Diana’s touch. Wide-eyed with fright, she slammed against the nearby wall, as her body shook. Concern overtook Vincent and he went to her, reached out with a careful touch, and placed his hand on her cheek. She pulled her head away violently, hesitated, then closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek against his palm. Confusion, relief and something else flashed across her face when she tried to pull away. That something else threatened to drive him insane, but he let it go and took her in his arms. She was safe and that was all that mattered.

Natalia grabbed him to her: a desperate, drowning woman clinging to a life raft. She gave a small cry, but no tears came. She was alive, and he was here. Natalia buried her face into Vincent’s neck, and felt the strength of his being surrounding and encompassing her. He shifted slightly, to cradle her, and carry her toward the door of the training room. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around his neck. He turned his head slightly, gave her a look of longing and kissed her. He stopped moving for a second as the kiss grew deeper. Their lips separated when a voice behind them reminded them they were not alone.

From Protector of the Grey House:

They were in a Nature Preserve. Technically, the park was closed. Technically, neither he nor the man should be here. Lorraine looked for these types of things, to find humans they could use for sport, if it were needed. His sire assured him it was safe. The man lived nearby and snuck into the park every night after work. He was a supervisor at a nearby call center. If he went missing, humans would look for him; Slayers would not.

All this information ran through the large vampire’s head as the man came closer. Satisfied with the situation, Vincent used his full speed and ran at the human. The man didn’t even notice. When Vincent slammed into him hard, the man screamed, but it was cut short. Vincent banged the human against a nearby tree which knocked the air out his lungs. As the man gulped for breath, Vincent laid his hand over the man’s mouth. The man tried to scream again, but Vincent grinned, elongated his fangs, and hissed.

The man screamed through Vincent’s hand, but the sound didn’t carry. In seconds, Vincent had his mouth wrapped around the man’s neck, his teeth buried deep in the human’s flesh. He ripped open the jugular and drank the coppery liquid that bled free. The man didn’t have time to struggle before all his blood was gone. Vincent pulled back from the corpse and dropped it to the ground.