Come for the witty banter and sexual tension between the protagonists, stay for the moments when this book wallops you in the feels. Excellent writing. Highly recommended!

My favourite of the Ms Marvel series so far...a really touching and exciting story. Plus some humour, especially in the art! Pay attention to the background scenes. :)

My least favourite of the series - did not find the hero or heroine compelling.

Didn't know what to expect with this book, but ended up really enjoying it. The writing and plot are snappy and move along at a good clip. Despite the fact that some parts read like Firefly for young adults (ragtag crew! space pirates! sneaking in to a space hospital!) it was a good story with likeable characters who underwent believable changes as the book progressed.

Not a book to be judged by its cover. This was a fun, funny, over the top story with a likeable hero and heroine.

In addition to this being a fun, funny, suspenseful story, I really enjoyed Scott Brick's narration.

This was a delightful story with an independent heroine who isn't stereotypically young and spunky. Very well-written and engaging.

Sadly I found most of these stories boring and/or not well written. The three exceptions being Rachel Caine, PN Elrod, and Carol Nelson Douglas.

Caveat: I bought this book for the Patricia Briggs story as I am a huge fan of her Mercy Thompson books and Alpha & Omega books. However, I also enjoyed the Eileen Wilks and Karen Chance stories, which were a bit more 'fantasy-ish' than werewolf/supernatural. The fourth story in the collection read like Laurell Hamilton at her most incoherent - I did not enjoy that one at all. So, the 4-star rating is for the other three stories.

A satisfying resolution to the, ahem, romantic tension that's been built up for the past 3 books between Curran and Kate. Also bonus points for most creative interpretation of Jewish biblical exegesis in a fantasy/paranormal novel. (Not that there are many contenders...)

This is a sequel to Spellfire, which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately this sequel did not live up to expectations. I found the pacing of the plot too hectic - the entire book is basically Shandril and her allies running from one dangerous situation to the next.

This is a charming Regency romance, light without being too frivolous and with well-developed characters. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Don't let the cover fool you - while there is some combat, the focus of this book is actually on people fighting their own inner battles. And figuring out how to get home after being stranded in a weird pocket universe consisting of nothing but water and floating islands.

Logan plus Kitty. 'Nuff said.

This book was fantastic. All the erudition you would expect from Neal Stephenson, plus a cracking yarn that I literally couldn't tear myself away from. Read it, read the glossary, the timeline, the calcas at the back - just dig in and enjoy. An awesome read.

This is a humorous, even farcical, take on the 'sword and sorcery' genre. A quick read, and mostly funny. I did find that sometimes the exaggerated circumstances and abilities of the heroes and villains made it hard to take the book seriously, but for the most part it's an engaging story.

paraphrased from my nephew, age 8:

I really liked this book. The story was fun and I liked the soccer instructions. The story is about a boy whose sister plays soccer but her coach falls down the stairs during a tournament. The boy and his friend - who is the coach's son - think maybe the coach was pushed. Then other accidents happen, like a heavy medicine ball falling on the team's goalie, so the boys have to solve the mystery of who is trying to hurt the team.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected, in part because it didn't require previous familiarity with Kelley Armstrong's other books. It works well as a standalone. I read some of the other Otherworld books a few years ago and while I found the concept and the characters interesting, they just never really grabbed me. Plus the tone was often too horror-ish for my liking. However, I found the stories in Men of the Otherworld quite gripping without being overly violent .

Except for the last one, the stories amount to a prequel relating events in the werewolf pack that occur before Bitten. They explain the circumstances behind Jeremy Danver's birth and his subsequent 'adoption' of Clay, as well as the relationship between these two and Jeremy's father Malcolm. The stores are well-paced and we get a good feel for the motivations and development of the characters.

My favourite story was Mary Janice Davidson's "The Incredible Adventures of Boo and the Boy Blunder" - it was really funny.
Also good was Maggie Shayne's "The Bride Wore a .44" - straightforward action/espionage stuff, very well paced and kept the excitement going.

This is a cute 'chick lit' book about a young woman, Jessica Luna, dealing with her job, family, and personal life. The one thing setting it apart (at least from the books of this ilk that I've read before) was the Latina perspective which was interesting though it didn't necessarily add depth to the characters, especially to Jessica's friends and co-workers. Her family members were better developed and I liked the interaction between Jessica and her sister and parents. Although I found myself getting irritated with Jessica regarding her over-dependence on her well-meaning but bogus fortune teller (who says things like "your palm is unclear. Why don't you tell me what has developed since the last time I saw you?"), on the whole she is a sympathetic character and the book is a fun light read.

Somehow not as enjoyable as the first in the series - some of the battle scenes dragged a bit - but still a fun read with great characters. Especially enjoyable is the slow revelation of Tavi's past and his developing relationships with the other cursors-in-training and Kitai.

Action packed with excellent characterization of both the heroes and villains. Just as much fun as the Dresden Files but in a high fantasy setting.

I really enjoyed this book for the window it opened into the online gaming world - something I've read a bit about but never experienced first-hand. (For this reason, the appendix of games at the back was much appreciated.)
Rossignol's descriptions of gaming culture in different cities and his constant debate about whether games contribute 'more' to society rather than only being ways to stave off boredom, are compelling. I like the fact that he never really gives a definitive answer to the 'what games are good for' question (or even the 'does it matter whether games are good for anything more than staving off boredom' question, for that matter) but simply provides different arguments based on his own experience and conversations with others. I had read Allyson Beatrice's book 'Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby' (about her experiences as a member of the Buffy and Angle fan forum communities) not long before reading This Gaming Life, and one thing that jumped out at me were the similarities in both books regarding the benefits provided by online gaming/ fan forums: building social ties across geographic distance, developing skills that translate into the 'real world', and of course the all-important saving oneself from boredom/loneliness.

I generally find it hard to get excited about non-fiction, but ever since I bought this book I've re-read it every year as the holiday of Purim approaches. It is a fascinating analysis of the book of Esther which makes the story come alive. Hazony's writing style is intellectual without being dry and his arguments are persuasive and passionate. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Bible, Jewish history, politics, or religion.

I was pleasantly surprised by how funny this book was. Lots of good jokes for grown-ups as well as kids.