Mercedes Lackey

The second Diana Tregarde adventure has her at home in New York City. She's supposed to be writing a category romance for her agent but having trouble because she finds the heroine a wimp. She's also shop sitting for a friend who is about to have a baby.

When a young Romany boy comes to the shop looking for the owner, Diana offers to help him escape the trouble that is following him. However, the trouble manages to catch up to him and kill him before Diana can do anything. This brings her to show more the attention of Andre Le Brel who is a vampire who has guarded the boy's family for generations.

Meanwhile, Diana's old boyfriend is part of a band that is just beginning to become popular when he attends a party, takes a new drug, and becomes someone he had no desire to be. He and his fellow bandmates come under the influence of Master Jeffries who is a psychic vampire feeding on the emotions of others. Worst of all, Master Jeffries has teamed up with a Japanese demon known as the soul eater.

Dave knows he's in over his head and calls on Diana for help. Their breakup was bad, and Diana doesn't want anything to do with Dave. But she's a Guardian and has to help when asked. Diana is still suffering from anxiety attacks from the last time she was asked for help and even teaming up with Andre and a couple of gifted friends feels like she's in over her head.

What I like most about this urban fantasy series is that Diana isn't all powerful. Sure, she has a Black Belt in karate and is a powerful mage, but she's also small and filled with self-doubts. But knowing the odds are against her isn't going to stop her from doing her duty as a Guardian. show less

The fifteenth Elemental Masters fantasy retells The Queen of Copper Mountain and uses Dolly Parton's Jolene to do it.

Anna May Jones is the daughter of a coal miner in the coal mining town of Soddy. She's sickly. Her mother sends her to live with her Aunt Jinny who lives in a holler by Ducktown. Jinny is an earth elemental master. She soon discovers that Anna could also be an earth elemental master with some training.

Just getting away from the mines has made Anna healthier. Her health show more improves still more as she learns to use earth magic with her aunt. Anna falls in love with Josh who is the eldest son of the family down the road. He's a gifted stone carver with a little bit of earth magic of his own.

This was a lush fantasy set in the hollers of Tennessee. It was filled with local culture and magic. I liked that Anna had the opportunity to learn from Jolene who is a very powerful elemental and that she was able to learn from some Cherokees who managed to hide out when the Removal happened. I liked the romance between Anna and Josh.

There were some things I didn't care for. While I enjoy colorful idioms and regional speech, I don't like dialect. I mean I really don't like dialect. Sometimes the text was almost impenetrable unless I read it out loud. Second, I'm not sure that the climactic scene when Anna needs to rescue her Josh from Jolene should have been humorous. But I couldn't help hearing the tune for Jolene as I was reading about Anna begging her not to take her man.

Third, the pacing of the story seemed off. There was an incredibly long buildup of Anna learning from her aunt and falling in love with Josh and then with just a few pages left there was a climax and a resolution. There was some foreshadowing of what the climax would be, but it still felt rushed to me. show less

A very good book - much better than the last several Valdemars. I got completely caught up in it, nearly missed an appointment. I really like Abi, and I find the "small" stuff she deals with more interesting than the big evil magic Perry crossed in the last book - or, for that matter, more interesting than what she's dealing with at the end of this book (though the original mission would have been fun). The political jokes/snark somewhat detract/distract from the story - obnoxious Dudley show more Remp of the very small hands, and Judge Bader Genberg...sheesh. Turns out Abi is asexual, which is excellent - that's not a point of the story, or anything of importance, it's just a fact about her which gets uncovered quite late and makes sense (in her mind) of a great many earlier things. I only noticed in retrospect, after the reveal, that in this story the main character never drops everything to gush about a partner or potential partner - something that annoys me every time. There were a few editing errors - typos, mis-named characters (and having two major secondary characters named Tory and Trey also thoroughly confused me at the beginning!), minor stuff. I am delighted at this latest Valdemar book, and looking forward to the next the way I haven't in years. show less

The storyline moved much faster than the first one, but the angst got turned up to eleven. I have a high tolerance for angst, particularly in a Mercedes Lackey book, and I will admit to thinking that Mags' reaction to things was not that over-the-top given what happened to him. He is forgiven.

But dear Lord, I will never ever forgive Lena and Bear. Ever. And I have this horrible feeling that I am supposed to, somehow. Their behavior towards someone they considered a friend was appallingly show more self-centered and nasty and hypocritical and genuinely reprehensible. I have never like Lena--she was tolerable, but pathetic. At best I felt faintly sorry for her. But Bear, Bear I expected better from. He is not generally that stupid.

On top of those two, the idea that everyone in the whole Collegium would suddenly forget everything that Mags had done and also the fact that he was *chosen* and proceed to act like a group of middle schoolers just felt...wrong. They brought up Tylendel, which was a completely different thing, and then proceeded to act in a way that was *likely* to alienate Mags and potentially cause problems instead of even considering talking to him or possibly helping him if he needed it or doing anything at all that, you know, might have been useful.

Then Mags, after his suicidal episode, proceeds to spend a bunch of time thinking about how he needs to apologize and being all understanding about how the King's Own feels the need to "test" him by leaving him alone in the city with a bunch of terrorists on the lose, terrorists who know him by sight and are likely to hold a grudge against him. No, Mags, just no. Maybe you don't realize, given your upbringing, that these people are all way out of line, but I certainly do. Lackey has successfully given me a reason to root for Mags, though, which was possibly the point.

Dallen is a joy to behold, as always, and a genuine friend.

Kirball got old fast.

I'm glad this wasn't my first Valdemar series, because I'm not sure I would have realized how much I liked them. I'll finish the series, though, mostly because I feel like Mags will end up a hero in the end and maybe people will remember it for more than a month. show less