An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Nice Girls Don't Live Forever by Molly Harper My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fun addition to the series. Jane and her vampire boyfriend break up so she's trying to deal with that grief while supporting her werewolf friend and human husband who are having a baby, getting her book store remodeled and running, fighting with her sister and Grandma and, of course, being stalked by an unknown crazy. I love all the characters in these books, especially Dick Cheney (a pre-Civil War vamp who wears inappropriate t-shirts and dallies in illegal behavior). View all my reviews

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper My rating: 3 of 5 stars Another entertaining book from Molly Harper. In this one, Jane is stuck in bridesmaid hell for Jolene's wedding. She's also worrying about her boyfriend's frequent trips and clearly secretive behavior. To top it off, her Grandma (a very unpleasant person) is engaged to a, well, something not quite human. I really like Jane and her growing circle of friends. I think I would hang out with them in real life. View all my reviews

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper My rating: 4 of 5 stars Jane Jameson had a bad day. She got fired from her job at the library, got drunk then sober at a local bar then met a tragic accident on her way home to then wake up three days later as a newly made vampire. Not only does Jane have to deal with her new vampire life, she's being framed for the murder of another vamp and is also the victim of rumors that she's a big vamp ho. Oh, and there are two hot vamps after her bod so she's got that going for her. Molly Harper is a really fun author. Her heroines aren't wimpy, whiny chicks. They're the type that faces their challenges and move on. I really dig her writing. View all my reviews

Rapture by Lauren Kate My rating: 3 of 5 stars The final book in the series. Daniel, Lucinda and friends have nine days to locate three artifacts that will lead to finding the exact spot where the angels fell from Heaven so they can stop Lucifer from resetting history. I saw a lot of the story coming but it was still a nice end to the story. These were decent teen fiction books. View all my reviews

Biting Cold by Chloe Neill My rating: 3 of 5 stars If I could go 3 1/2 stars, I would. Merit and Ethan head off to capture a renegade sorceress who's after a magical book that can release unimaginable evil. The reappearance of an enemy and the threatened expulsion from the world Vampire organization are also on their plate. Merit continues to grow on me and grow as a character. Ethan is doing the same but at a much slower pace. I guess 400 year olds don't change that quickly. Really dig this series. View all my reviews

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith My rating: 4 of 5 stars I picked this for our book club this month. That choice was met with a mixed reception. I enjoyed it. I dig historical fiction and I love vampires so, as long as this was well written, how could I not enjoy it? The gist of the story is that the author is given a set of diaries by a semi-stranger who tells him to write the story. The diaries are allegedly Lincoln's and tell his tale of why he hates vampires and how that hate led to his disgust of slavery. There was clearly a lot of research done for this book which was cool. After our discussion, I had to agree that it would have been better if there had been some closure on why the diaries were given to someone at that point of time and what happened to the author (because he writes it in the first person) after he finished the work. View all my reviews

Passion by Lauren Kate My rating: 2 of 5 stars I thought there were only three books in this series so I was looking for a big finish. Oops, there's one more. This book was mostly Luce and Daniel flitting back through Luce's previous incarnations as Luce tries to discover how to break their curse and Daniel tries to stop her from changing history or hurting herself. While the past lives were interesting, I don't know that I needed a whole book of them. It is now set up for a big finish, however, so I'll be checking out the next book. View all my reviews

How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper My rating: 4 of 5 stars The plot is straight out of Romance Writing 101. Heroine moves away from family after breakup to small town where she's at first a fish out of water but then finds acceptance and love. The twist? The love interest is a werewolf. Sweet! There's actually more to the story than basic romance plotting and I really enjoyed it. View all my reviews

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin My rating: 3 of 5 stars Interesting story. Yeine Darr is the young leader of one of many kingdoms in the realm. After her mother dies mysteriously, she is summoned by her Grandfather, ruler of all, and named one of his heirs. That doesn't sit too well with his other two heirs and there's a lot of intrigue and violence and, oh, yeah, gods as slaves. This is the first in a series but it could stand alone. View all my reviews

Torment by Lauren Kate My rating: 2 of 5 stars Second in the series and I think I'm too old for it. This is a teen fiction book and it has some of those Twilight elements that annoy me. Young girl think guy is her soulmate even though she doesn't know him, has other great boy interested in her, etc. That said, the story is at least continuing. Luce is hiding out at another school for angel/demons while Daniel and Cam try to protect her from the Outcast angels. She doesn't make it easy as she keeps leaving the school to investigate her past lives. Several new characters and Luce finally starts taking matters into her own hands. I have the third book on hold at the library and am intrigued at how the End Times all play out. View all my reviews

The short version of the story:  George makes a miraculous recovery and George's Mommy saves $1,000. The long version... Several months ago, George started doing something very bad. She started peeing on my bed. I couldn't  find anywhere else in the house except right there, on top of the comforter. Nice. Other than that behavior, she seemed perfectly fine. Still eating and drinking and actually using her litter box. I took her to the Vet and he said she probably had a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) so he gave her a newish antibiotic which is in a shot and works up to 14 days. They tested her urine and found one lone crystal in it. He told me at the time that it could take up to 6 weeks of treatment to make a UTI go away. About ten days later, the peeing on the bed started again. I took her back to the Vet and she got another shot and also an oral antibiotic which I had to give her twice a day for two weeks. Since I was leaving town (of course) in ten days, I said I wou...

13 by Kelley Armstrong My rating: 4 of 5 stars Really nice finish to the series. We got a good wrap-up of the storyline developed in the past two books and left the characters in a good place. All is not right with the world so you know they will have further adventures but at least all is right with the world in that moment. This book was mostly told from Savannah's viewpoint but Eve, Jamie, Paige, Hope and Elena all got a little bit of the story to tell, as well. I love how strong the women are in this series and how it doesn't take away from how strong the men are as well. There are a nice number of well balanced relationships. View all my reviews

Drink Deep by Chloe Neill My rating: 4 of 5 stars I'm really enjoying this series. Merit is trying to get over Ethan when a series of mystical events start plaguing Chicago. The general public blames vampires. The GP (vampire authority) is investigating Merit's vampire house as to its worthiness and restricting their involvement in solving the puzzle. Also, there's a new mayor in town who is using supernaturals as a platform to higher political office (hmmm, sounds like AZ and some politicians' stands on immigration). I like the characters in here and I really like that Merit may whine a bit but then she bites the bullet and faces issues head on. View all my reviews

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness My rating: 2 of 5 stars Man, I wish I liked these books more because everyone is raving about them. Diana and Matthew go back in time so she can learn how to control her witchcraft and they can hide from those looking for them. We got a lot of Elizabethan life which was interesting and I liked how Harkness wrote in folks like Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth. What I didn't like was how it dragged on. And, her lessons in magic and how she learns to cast her spells were silly to me. Oh, and never mind how much they changed the future by being in Matthew's past. Will I read the third book? Probably, just to see how it turns out. Will I rush to read the third one when it comes out? Not likely. View all my reviews

I don't know why I think I'll get back to regular posting on this blog when I can't seem to stay home for more than a few days in a row. Here's my recent travel: 7/27 - 8/6 Tour of my Wisconsin Homeland with my parents. 8/6 - 8/10 Calgary for work. 8/17 - 8/19 California for a Disneyland visit. 8/23 - 8/26 Minnesota for a Parrot Head event. 8/31 - 9/2 Litchfield Park, AZ for our local Parrot Head event. Add in a few sick days, two football drafts, book club, poker, the planning for our local event and a few other Parrot Head events and there was barely time to sleep. Certainly no time to clean as is clearly evident to the trusted few I've let enter my hovel. The good news is that I'm not on the road again for almost two months. The bad news is that I have to shovel out the hovel because I'm hosting book club this month. OK, I guess that should count as good news, too. It's way overdue.