“Many people out there don't have a choice in choosing their friends and the people they're being manipulated by. Thank God, I have that choice. I can use my judgment and choose.” -- Javier Bardem

“When it comes to controlling human beings, there is no better instrument than lies. Because you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.” -- Michael Ende

Owl just can’t catch a break. She should have learned, from her run-ins with all that is supernatural in Owl and the Japanese Circus that, the more she learns about the supernatural, the more there is to learn. And the more she would regret breaking her one rule. It was so simple, really. Don’t mess with the supernatural. Well, that’s all blown to hell and back. And hell is exactly where she might end up this time. She had to go and open up that sarcophagus, hence pissing off the vampires. Bloody cockroaches. Then she had to get on the wrong side of a Naga and a dragon. Oh, and if that isn’t enough? Now it is curses and mummies. You just had to touch it, didn’t you? Just had to unwrap it and touch it. Sigh.

I said about Owl in my last review, “Owl is a damaged character. Her default reaction to, well, everything is to break and run for the hills. Sure, it can save your backside to run away. But sometimes, you are just running further into the fire. And sometimes, the people you believe you know are not the people you thought they were at all. For good, or for bad. And Owl needs to learn the difference, quickly, if she wants to live, and to grow into something more than a child in a grownup world. Owl definitely needs to grow as a person, and as a character.” And I have to say, she definitely does show personal and professional growth in “Owl and the City of Angels.” Oh, that isn’t to say she doesn’t still make dumb choices – she does. Hence the whole “mummies and curses” thing. But she is growing.

“Come to think of it, I’m amazed how much I’ve grown over the past few months. I’m becoming an interesting person. Not well adjusted, but someone who occasionally sees through the messes they create.”

Of course, Owl being Owl, she winds up in shitstorms of monstrous proportions, but that is to be expected. And vacillates between funny – and just plain causing me to plant a face-palm.

“You are correct in your assessment of the City of the Dead. Keep in mind that even we supernaturals sometimes lose places for a reason.”

The story itself is as good as Japanese Circus. There is as much going on in this book, if not more, and as the cast of characters expands Owl begins to learn more about the supernatural, and more about herself as well. Old characters come back, both good and bad, and Owl becomes a pawn once more in the political power struggles of both the supernatural and of the IAA. Layers are peeled back, only to reveal more layers of rot and lies underneath. As always, this is an adventure heavy, Indiana Jane sort of tale, and Owl impresses me more and more with both her capability, her savvy, and her ability to piss everyone around her off in new and inventive ways. And the authors interest in, and knowledge of, archaeology really adds depth and dimension to the story. I am, of course, a geek at heart, and I found all sorts of things to highlight and look up later.

I can’t recommend this series highly enough for readers who like strong women characters who are still learning about themselves and about how to manage their pain and grow. Some wrongs are righted in this volume, though some even more horrible wrongs occur – one particular one which ripped my insides out. Captain, Owl’s Egyptian Mau partner is still a strong part of the story – who can’t love a cat who was bred specifically to attack and poison vampires with his teeth and claws? Awesome! The only bad part? I have to WAIT for the next volume! And from the epilogue? Oh, yeah. The waiting is gonna be very, very hard. Everyone wants to use Owl for their own plots and plans . . . and here is hoping that at least a couple of those people get exactly what is coming to them!!

I received Owl and the City of Angels from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own. Kristi Charish has assured her place on my Auto-Read list. Very highly recommended!

    

This eighteenth installment of the Needlecraft Mystery series starts out with a bang! No, really. It starts with a raging storm, and a tree falling on someone’s home. And that’s just the beginning of the excitement.

 

Ms. Ferris has managed yet again to add a fresh take on a long running series. I don’t know how she does it, but the author always finds something new to get into for her protagonist, Betsy Devonshire and Betsy’s Crewel World Monday Bunch.

 

As with her past books, DARNED IF YOU DO is very descriptive, ensuring that you “see” things as they happen while you’re reading. You can’t help but visualize the scenes.

 

The mystery was filled with plenty of twists and turns, keeping me guessing. And once again, as with the book before this one, book seventeen in this series, THE DROWNING SPOOL, I had no idea who the killer was until Ms. Ferris spelled it out for me.

 

The needlecraft project in this installment is for a crochet pattern for Classic Lace. You do not have to know any sort of needlework to read this book, but it sure makes you wish you did. 

I'm sorry to say that this book didn't wow me. It was just ok. A few funny moments but not much else.

Circus of the Darned is the follow-up to 2005's Got Fangs?, the first book in the Goth series, and takes place in the same world as Katie MacAlister's Dark Ones series. The name Katie Maxwell is a pseudonym used by Katie MacAlister with her young adult titles.

Francesca "Fran" Ghetti has been traveling across Europe with her mom and the GothFaire for the last several months. Fran is finally beginning to realize that she'll never have a normal life she once craved. The traveling GothFaire and all the strange and mysterious people that work there, her Wiccan High Priestess mother, and Benedikt, a really cute Dark One (aka vampire) who claims she is his Beloved are just the start! She's also got to deal with her psychometry skills—the ability to read a person or object's past, as well as their thoughts and emotions, through touch—and try to integrate that into her life. But at least she's beginning to accept, perhaps even like, her new life.

However, just as things have started to look up, it all begins to fall apart. First, someone steals her horse Tesla, most likely the oddly curious man who had expressed an interest and offered her an amazingly large sum of money for such an old horse. Then, she accidentally manages to raise an entire battlefield of warring, Viking ghosts... who refuse to move on to the afterlife! Buggers! All this just in time to ruin her first "real" date with Benedikt on Saturday.

While this book had a good story to it, there were several things about Fran's character that bugged me. For example, I got tired very fast of all the teen-ish giggly, girly stuff going on. I had to laugh though because even Fran herself would admit she didn't like "going all girly". Too bad she can't listen to her own advice. LOL But it's not just this book really... I have the same problem with most of this author's characters—they're all too ditzy, girly, catty, or just plain stupid for my taste; she's never really written a character that has endeared herself to me. (For proof, just search for "macalister" on my blog to read my past reviews.)