By the way, this gives you a really good motive for killing her…did you?

Another latest in a series…this one:

It’s the third Merrychurch Mystery, and guys, this series is so easy to fall in love with. They’re not quite cozy mysteries, but there something so cozy about them they are so easy to get lost in. And this third book has everything in I fell in love with in the first two!

Jonathon and Mike. They are such a wonderful pair! They fit together so easily, and do so without all of the excess drama that you see so often in romance books. Now don’t get me wrong – drama has it’s place and can add a bit of kick when it’s done right, but it really is refreshing to see such a strong relationship without the drama at times too. Oh they have their moment of teasing and banter –

“You know when I really love your coffee? When you bring it to me in bed…Of course, the best part is you’re nake….

But they have their serious moments too, and those really do hit home…

“I loved what you said [earlier]. You spoke your mind and you were honest…I was so proud of you…

And the whole calmness of that just suits these mysteries to a ‘t’. Now I said in the posts about the earlier books, these aren’t the tense, graphic, edge-of-your seat murder-mysteries, they’re twisty ones. No psychopaths or serial killers, but a lot of red herrings and possible suspects and clues that just need to be put together. I love how KC Wells writes these as a trail of breadcrumbs rather than a gory path to uncover the killer, and even if you do kinda suspect the culprit before the great reveal, I love how she doesn’t make this a crime of pure evil.

Instead, it’s a motive you can relate too. The whole premise was wonderful – a literary festival in the small village of Merrychurch where the most cantankerous author present if the one who becomes the victim. And just like with the last two mysteries, it’s not only the murderer that gets uncovered when the crime is investigated. Small towns and the people in them have their secrets, and the skeletons that come out of about both the guilty and the innocent are both surprising and relatable. What a fantastic way to bring the village of Merrychurch alive! And being from a small town myself I definitely feel the nod to the real world there…

But like I said, these are not exactly cozy mysteries, but they aren’t bloodfests either, and watching Jonathon and Mike stick their noses in where they don’t belong to as they follow that trail of breadcrumbs is such an enjoyable experience.

And more than that, the additional boost with this particular book is that – yes! There’s the added joy of seeing the relationship between Jonathon and Mike develop a bit further too – and in the best way! No spoilers – but, guys, it’s perfect! (and even it friends Ruth and Clare do their part to move things along even quicker – if a little *too* quick honestly – it’s still…perfect!).

So pick this up if you want a calm, enjoyable, and pretty cleverly designed mystery to carry you away – in fact, start at book 1 and enjoy all of it in full. Nothing too tense, nothing too graphic, but a wonderful visit to a village, a pub, a manor house and a couple you will want to visit again!

Have a great Sunday and…

(P.S. – I’m seriously considering moving this blog to some other platform than WordPress. I’m sure whoever designed this updated editor thought it was a good idea, just like I’m sure there’s tons of people who love it. Me though? This thing drives me nuts.)

“Did you ever [say] everything would be all right, even when you really had no idea?”

The latest in a truly phenomenal series that is nothing short of incredible – these:

These are parts 1 and 2 of vol. 10 of Harper Fox‘s amazing Tyack & Frayne series – and one thing I’ve said about this series when I posted about the first 9 books (or 3 books, since I read the paperback anthologies), is that this whole series isn’t so much a continuing series. It’s a continuing story.  One story, that even as we speak is continuing to unfold. I love that about this series! It’s been seven years since Gideon and Lee met, six since they became a true couple and five that they’ve been married, and the sense of reality in the life they’ve built and the family they’ve created is just so real…

Gideon leaned on the doorway…if you’d told the lonely copper six years ago that he’d be watching his nephews and daughter rolling around with his husband on the lawn on this beautiful house…It seemed so surreal at times…

….it really is following Gideon and Lee as their lives continue to grow and change. And that sense of wonderful family-perfection comes across strong in vol 1 – at least for a moment. Because you know what else Harper Fox does incredibly in this series? Never lets anything be an isolated incident. Which means the threads from previous books continue to be pulled. And when you see the extent to which they’re pulled…guys, it’s stunning, and not in a good way.

Because the one thing that is clear right from the start of vol 1 is how wrong everything feels, despite how good everything seems. Lee feels it, we readers feel it, and even Gideon feels it, though it’s the what and why that no one can really pin down. Because it’s not Tamsyn, (though that little girl will truly stun by the end of vol 2), and it’s not Gideon’s true destiny as Guardian of the Moor, though even Lee is still feeling his way around that revelation, especially during the full moon, and especially during the blisteringly hot and steamy times that happen at the full moon. But the trust is still there and so very vibrant…

“…’no’ would mean ‘no’ between them always, ‘wait’ and ‘stop’ and ‘don’t’. With that much settled in his mind, Lee could let it all go…

…and so the sense of wrongness really does come from something else. Kind of like the feeling of dread that something bad is going to happen, though you can’t for the life of figure out where that’s coming from. And that feeling permeates the whole first book. Mainly from Lee, but still….there’s a wrongness you can feel, and it has to do with a lot more than the very real, very non-paranormal wrench that’s thrown into the world Gideon and Lee have built.

I’m not going to put any spoilers in here about that, but I will say that Harper Fox handled this as incredibly as she does the rest. And made it so real that Lee’s reactions hurt as badly as the news itself. Because you understand them, you know what he’s doing and why…

A lie rose in Lee’s throat, so complete he must have been brewing it up along with tea…

[He] would have preferred something better to take back…A plain ‘good’ would do little to take the loving terror out of his husband’s eyes…

Distractions, shields, misdirections…

…[or] think up a way to end the terrifying charade of normality he’d begun the day before…

And so yeah, it’s not just the paranormal that affects them this time, and God, it hurts to watch Lee go through this.

But you know what really, really stuns you about all of this? How even that is not truly free from paranormal interference. Yeah, something long past makes this even worse, and a the thread from a previous book really did make this even more heartbreaking. That may sound cryptic, but really, it’s just plain incredible storytelling by Harper Fox, that even when you know something is wrong, that even when you know your own actions are strange, you don’t see it because you don’t want to see it. That self-inflicted blindness is throughout vol 1, but you see it especially here –

Gid might forget an appointment completely, but never in a thousand years [would he] let Lee attend [one] on his own…

Except this time he did, and Lee knew that was wrong, and yet he chose the very real reaction of being grateful for it instead of worried about why either of them let Lee come alone. Because it let him hide from the possibility of losing the life he loved. As I said before, this part of the story deals a lot with a very real, very personal aspect of the mundane world, and it deals with it so well that you don’t see the paranormal around it –

Until you do, and guys, when you do – it will shock you to the core. Again, such incredible storytelling by Harper Fox, because it’s all there. When you look back, it’s all right there if you were looking for it…and yet you never see it coming until it hits you. And while I’m not a big fan of cliffhangers, and it’s true that vol 1 ends with a big one…I can say this…

If you’re going to do a cliffhanger, this is how you do it. The reason for the cliffhanger – the whole reason for the title of Book 10 in Gideon and Lee’s lives – is revealed near the end of the first book, but guys, it’s the last chapter that will truly shock you, shatter you, break your heart into a million little pieces and make you not want to wait for vol 2. Thankfully, I had vol 2 right on hand, and I’m serious when I say I barely took a breath from finishing vol 1 and starting vol 2…

But I can tell you this: vol 2 is not going to be what you want to read. No,no, no…I’m not saying it’s not incredible (because it is). What I’m saying is that it’s going to hurt to read it. Because that cliffhanger from vol 1? That’s not a fluke. It’s not something easily fixed, and it’s not something corrected or rescued or put down and then you move on. It’s real, it’s stunning, and it’s heartbreaking to see it….and not just for Gideon and Lee. Have  you seen the movie The Butterfly Effect? (it’s an old movie, it’s got Ashton Kutcher in it, and it’s really good – if you haven’t watched it,  you should). That’s the experience of vol 2. The world as it would have been had things worked out differently all the way back in book 1. Yeah, the very beginning. And worse, it’s the world as it is, because the paranormal that hits at the end of vol 1 means things did work out differently back then.

Now I admit that just reading the blurbs of vol 1 and vol 2, I didn’t really get what was happening in these books from them alone. In fact, I didn’t really get what was happening until it all happened as I read it. And guys, it’s just stunning how it all played out. Things you saw in earlier books get clearer, threads from earlier books get twisted differently, dangers you knew where there become far more dangerous than you ever thought they could, and things happen in ways that you hadn’t even realized was possible….

It will knock you for a loop. And it’s not all resolved at the end of vol 2…

But this chapter in Gideon’s and Lee’s lives it isn’t over yet either. There’s a Book 10, vol 3 that will hopefully be out in November, so there’s still time for the world to right itself. And despite all of the pain and darkness of these first two volumes, I can also tell you there is one moment at the end of vol 2 that truly made me smile.

Tremethick-Prowse Industries. Or more specifically –

If you send this back, we’ll donate it to the fucking BNP…

If you’ve read the book, you’ll know what that means, and if you’ve read the series,  you’ll know exactly why that made me smile. No  names were mentioned, but there didn’t have to be. That was a moment I loved. And if you haven’t read the series yet, don’t wait. These are phenomenal books surrounding a phenomenal couple surrounded by a phenomenal family, and it’s a story you are definitely going to want to be a part of.

Have a great Sunday and…

“I came at the call of the dragon mage…”

I did finally get the inspiration to read something again, and guys, what I picked up this time is so incredibly awesome – this:

This is a full-fledged fantasy complete with magic and dragons and a slow-burn romance that will blow you away! Not just in how it happens – the story or the romance – but how it’s written. Guys, J.A. Jaken knows how to write an amazingly fully fleshed out story! The world and the people are just stunning. And she knows how to keep it real, even in a fantasy setting.

This story it told almost completely from Jander’s POV (although there is a bit here and there from Andrei’s), and honestly, one of the most magnificent things J.A. Jaken did was portray Jander exactly as Jander was supposed to be:  young and naive, little more than a village-boy but still determined to become a mage by way of becoming the apprentice to Vallerin’s legendary palace mage. Big dreams that seem so simple until he’s actually in the palace of the king, and when the reality hits – when he absolutely gets reality-checked when he first approaches Andrei to request to be be taken as an apprentice – it shows better than anything how young, how inexperienced, how unprepared Jander is for his dreams to come true. And Jaken painted it beautifully, and more than that, she painted it realistically. From the hope to the humiliation, you feel it.

And believe me, you feel every moment after just as completely.

I absolutely love Jander! He *is* young and inexperienced in the ways of the big, wide world, but his determination to be who is meant to be in terms of magic is so clear that you can feel his frustration and exasperation with every roadblock he hits. And he does hit roadblocks at the beginning – I lost count of how many times Andrei refused when Jander asked. But Jander stays (which is actually a lot more important to the story than it sounds like here), he doesn’t give up (even when those roadblocks hurt), and he does find a way to make himself heard. And guys, that part of the story, from first step to finally gaining acceptance, is epic all in itself. It’s beautiful, because you see Jander’s eyes opening, you see his understanding of why Andrei says no growing, and you see how his efforts are as much for Andrei as they are for himself. Meaning yeah, there’s a reason Andrei keeps refusing, and Jander does more than find a way through it – he understands it. Jander has got to be one of the most giving souls you’ve ever met –

And I can tell you I love Andrei just as much! He’s got the poise, he got the charisma, he’s got the intelligence to be both intimidating and legend-worthy, but he’s got such painful baggage that it hurts to learn about it. The great enemy in this story is the apprentice before Jander, the one Andrei trained, but who he couldn’t stop from taking the path to dark magic – meaning it’s the enemy he created, and the betrayal is vivid. And it’s the greatest obstacle Jander had to face to being accepted as Andrei’s apprentice-

“You just can’t bring yourself to trust anyone else, not ever again…”

And guys, seeing Jander face it is both beautiful and painful, for us and for them. That really is as much the story as the story itself, and it will fill your heart the see Jander make it through that betrayal, inch by precious inch. And the relationship they build when they finally allow themselves to is beauty in itself – but fair warning to anyone who hasn’t read this yet: a lot of people don’t like it when an MC sleeps with anyone other than the other MC, so be aware that it happens in this book. Jander falls for Andrei nearly from the start, but they don’t truly come together until more than halfway through. That means for a little more than half the book, yeah, Jander does sleep with other people. Boaen first (a city whore he rescues who then becomes a friends with benefits), and the king himself after (though I will say I admire how Jaken handled Jander’s reaction after this, especially given that Jander did so only to comfort his desperately lonely king). And Jander doesn’t apologize for either even after he finally wins Andrei’s heart –

Though he does make a wonderful distinction the first time he’s with Andrei –

Jander was no stranger to the act of sex, though his past love affairs…were simply transactions – pleasure asked for and pleasure given – and nothing more complicated had ever been expected…

[But] what was happening between [him and Andrei] was more than bodies…he knew in his heart it was infinitely more than just sex…

– and isn’t the writing of this just beautiful too? Jaken really does know how to get the feelings across with the story. Now I can honestly say I didn’t entirely love seeing Jander with other people, but I can tell you this: just get past the other lovers, and then you are in for a spectacular story with a beautiful romance right at its heart. Jander and Andrei are beautiful together, and no, there are no others once they come together as they should.

And romance aside, as far as the story itself, guys, this is a stunning fantasy-adventure! There’s an army coming intent on destroying the city of Vallerin. The magic is there –

Use your power to calm an angry dog, and the animal forgets how to fear…

There is always a price for using the magic…Always…

– the dark magic is there –

“The darkness takes what it needs from those foolish enough to call on its power, and leaves behind that which it uses to fuel itself: jealousy, hopelessness, fear, anger…hatred…the shadows offer power beyond imagining, [but] they also devour…”

– and enemy at the head of the army, the former apprentice of Andrei?

“[Kirin] has been following the shadow paths for nearly six years….He is not the same person he was when he left us…He has become something much worse…”

–  and then there’s the dragons –

“The dragon was evil, wasn’t it?”

“No.” Andrei’s voice was thoughtful. “It was bonded to Kirin…[and] the madness traveled over the bond to the dragon….in its own way, I believe the dragon was insane…”

So yeah, there is so much more to this story than Jander and Andrei. And speaking of dragons, I love how Jaken portrayed the dragons in this story! Not good, not evil, just an entity unto themselves that will aid or not, depending on their own choices. Unless they’re called by a dragon mage. That quote at the very top? Yeah, it comes into play, and though you really do kinda see it coming, when it actually does…it will give you the tingles.

This really is a stunning story that beautifully mixes fantasy, magic, and romance, and it’s actually the prequel to Dragon Mage Chronicles, a four-book saga that follows Jander and Andrei in their quest to protect their king and country (and those would be Stormdrake, Firedrake, Seadrake, and Wardrake, and yes, I will be reading them in short order). But this prequel is beautiful all on its own, and it’s the perfect introduction to Jander and Andrei – and a kitling that i absolutely adore! Think miniature dragon, and her name is Gabrielle. And guys – there’s one side character that wasn’t around for more than half a  page that I flat-out loved too! Fiorillo – the swordmaster in charge of training Jander to use the weapon as well as his magic –

The blow came out of nowhere, connecting solidly with Jander’s shin.

Fiorillo regarded him without pity. “What did you do wrong?”

Stifling the urge to grumble out loud, Jander thought about it…”I took my eyes off you…I turned away from you…it left my side vulnerable.”

Fiorillo nodded in approval. “Very good.” The stick snaked out again, hissing as it moved. This time it caught Jander in the chest. “What did you do wrong?”

Painful way to learn, but boy, would you learn, yeah? Like I said, he was only there for a couple of paragraphs, but I really liked him! I would actually like to see more of him…

And I honestly can’t wait to start the Chronicles! And if you haven’t read this yet, you shouldn’t wait to start the adventure! I don’t suppose you have to read the prequel before reading the Chronicles, but you if you do, you get to see where it all began. The writing is superb, the story is amazing, and Jander and Andrei…

“Will you accept me an an apprentice, and train me in the ways of magic?”

Andrei hesitated…[then] reached out one hand to touch his fingers to Jander’s mouth and trace the outline of his lips. “I accept you as my mage apprentice,” he said…[and] his eyes never left Jander’s face. “Will you follow me, and obey my teachings, and vow to always embrace the Light?”

Jander drew himself up under the formal phrasing of the words, feeling breathless. “I just did,” he whispered.

– they have a romance, a bond, and a heart-filling and growing love you don’t want to miss! And best of all, all four books of Chronicles are out too so you don’t have to wait!

Have a great Saturday and…

So how do you do it? Not the finding the time or ideas, but actually the how of how you write? I was talking with a new author of recently published book and we got on this subject, and it turns out my answer to this question is this: I write like I speak.

Which means punctuation is kind of flaky (I’ll use commas like nobody’s business), my sentences will run on for miles (editors love that), and I’ll change subjects half-way through a paragraph. I’ll also change where I’m going half-way to a point.

Meaning yeah, not only do I ramble on forever, I also think like a tree: I’ll start talking about one specific thing, and then branch out to the point that twenty minutes later, I could be talking about anything. And yes, I do that in real life too. Which is a lot of fun when you’re chatting with a friend who does the same thing.

We were actually chatting a while ago about getting a Susan B. Anthony dollar out of change machine in place of quarters, and over the course of about twenty minutes we went from the coin to pizzas in Germany to the lion engraved nails used to build Brian Boru’s fort at Kincora about a thousand years ago (that’s in Ireland, by the way). So yeah, talking that way can be fun, but writing that way can be an adventure.

And speaking of writing and reading – honestly, not much is happening on either front at the moment. I’ve read posts by a lot of other authors who are finding themselves in some sort of lull (probably because of 2020 being what it is) and are not able to find the motivation to write, and yeah, I’m finding myself in that same sort of lull right now. It took me a little longer to get there, but…there you go.

On the bright side – summer is about over (fall is my absolute favorite season of year), Hailey Turner’s On the Wings of War is now out (even though I’m impatiently waiting on the paperback), and I do have a pile of books ready when the mood to read something other than On the Wings strikes again.

So…onward and upward…

Have a great Sunday

I saw this in Rhys Ford’s blog. A post about how about the necessity (as some people would call it) to speak proper English. Or rather, how very often people are shamed for not speaking proper English. Or for that matter, for not speaking English at all. Because “they” think that if you’re in America, you need to speak English.

RF makes a very good point in her post about the wrongness of shaming people over language, but you know what? There’s another point that isn’t mentioned in her post. Putting the wrongness of shaming people aside, the argument “they” make about the need to speak English in this country is not even valid. You know why?

Because the United States doesn’t have an official language.

Yep. Despite all of the things the founding fathers did to establish this country as an independent, autonomous county, they never established an official language. And despite all of the bills that have been drafted and posed in all of the years that followed, a bill has never been passed.

Meaning that the US does not have an official language.

So yeah. Kind of makes the whole argument of “if you’re in this country, learn to speak the language” pretty much irrelevant, huh? And it’s something to see all of the arrogance in this county, isn’t it? ‘Cuz language isn’t the only thing “they” spout about without getting their facts straight…

But that’s another post…maybe. Meanwhile, I can say I hate this new WordPress Editor crap, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time trying to figure it out, and I haven’t been posting much lately because of it. And you’ll notice there’s also no pics or clipart on this post. All I can say is, when I happen upon a day when I have an exceptional amount of patience, I’ll make an effort.

Until then…have a great Tuesday!

Listen to me. I sound like a regular Poirot…

In between all of the other reading that I’m doing, I started a series that is absolutely wonderful…this one:

These are the first two books, and guys, this is one of the most just plain enjoyable series I’ve come across lately.  I love the setting – the little English village of Merrychurch – and I love the way KC Wells depicted it. It’s one of those villages that seems like its stuck back in time, but it still has that bit of modernness to it that makes it a place you just want to go see and enjoy. And I can say as far as small towns go, she nailed the whole atmosphere of them perfectly.

And that’s all in addition to Jonathon and Mike! Now their meeting may be a little on the predictable side, but what goes on from there…it’s amazing! And natural. And fitting. Meaning that the feelings that grow between them are exactly how Jonathon says they should grow at one point in Truth Will Out –

“If it’s meant to be it will happen all on its own without my help…”

It’s actually one of the things that I love best about how these two fit together – their whole relationship just developed organically (yeah, that’s Jonathon’s word again). And it’s really remarkable how clear it is that nothing between them is forced or manipulated or even engineered – by the characters or by the author. KC Wells really made them a perfectly wonderful pair! Which is remarkable in itself considering their very different backgrounds.

Jonathon – world traveler, renowned photographer, heir-turned-earl of the manor, yet so incredibly down to earth that you can’t help but love him.  And Mike – former cop now pub owner, with copper habits hard to break –

Jonathon was seriously impressed with Mike’s demeanor. He imagined seeing Mike in full detective mode would have been something to behold…

– and yet with such an easy sense of humor and an easy-going manner that it’s no wonder Jonathon falls for him. Seriously, it’s just so easy to like these guys. And the banter between them is just spectacular –

“You do realize that as lord-of-the-manor that you’re one of the [contest] judges?”

Jonathon gasped. “Why did no one tell me?” He glared at Mike. “And by no one, I mean you.”

Natural is the only word for the relationship with these two, and one of the best endearments actually isn’t the sharing of the ‘I love you’ that eventually comes about. It’s this, from Jonathon himself in Roots of Evil –

“I haven’t changed…I [just] feel comfortable enough around you to be myself…”

Because that really does hit right, doesn’t it? And that’s even without the sex. Yep, there are no graphic sex scenes in either of these books. But you know what, these stories don’t need them. The feelings are there, the beauty of it all is there, the realness is there. I love stories that can do this!

Now there are mysteries in these books too. Not running ones (each one is separate) and not super-intense ones (no violent psychopaths or such), but they are tricky ones with a lot of false leads and red herrings. And a good amount of surprises in each of them too. Not only in the mysteries themselves, but in the things they uncover along with them. Small villages always have their secrets, and yeah, Merrychurch is no different.

But no, instead the things that carry over are the things outside of the mysteries themselves. Like Jonathon’s father (who still thinks Jonathon is going to marry and produce an heir), and his on-hold career as a travel photographer (which he doesn’t want to give up, but doesn’t want to leave Mike for either). Neither of which has actually been resolved after two books, so seeing how they play out in the third book is something to look forward to in addition to any upcoming mysteries.

And the third book, by the way, is already released (and that would be A Novel Murder). I haven’t read that one yet so I don’t know if there are going to be more after this, but I can tell you that I really, really hope there are!  Seriously, I love the setting, I love the tangled up mysteries, and I absolutely love Jonathon and Mike –

Jonathon huffed.  “You always have to play the experience card, don’t you?”

Mike laughed. “Trust me. If we’re ever in a situation where knowledge of photography, cameras, depth of field, etc. is required, then  you can take the lead…”

– and who knows? They might actually end up with a cat!

Have a great Tuesday and –