Review

Book Review: Dewey the small town library cat who touched the world by Vikcki Myron

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How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can’t even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Dewey’s story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

The very first thing that will draw you into Dewey is the adorable cat that is on the front of the cover. This is Dewey himself of course and looking at those eyes you can see the soul within him. I have seen a lot of cat eyes but his are so expressive! How I wish I had known this lovely gentleman for surely he must be a noble soul just look at how he holds himself. We first meet Dewey on the harrowing cold morning when he is found in the book drop box of the library a shivering nearly dead little kitten. Thanks to the good handling of his new Moms however Dewey comes out of his cold daze and recovers to become a very gregarious fellow. Who wins the heart of everyone he meets in the library.

The story of Dewey the library cat is well written and emotional. It will pull at every single one of your heart strings with every turn of the page. I also love another underlying message within the book how even strangers can be part of a community. Dewey’s fame brought people from all over to meet him and he treated everyone the same. The library became a place for people to come again to relax within its walls and spend some time with the sweet soul who managed to find the best in everyone he met. How can you not be touched by that kind of story?

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story and of course those who love animals. If you do not know animals have personality and soul you will by the end of this book. Make sure you have time to read when you start Dewey’s book however because you will not want to put it down.

Book Review: Jack & Rochelle by Jack Sutin

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Jack and Rochelle Sutin crossed paths in the winter of 1942-43, when, after separate escapes from Nazi ghetto labor camps, they discovered each other in the wooded lands of Poland. The forest where they remained in hiding was a place where many Jews and Russians, the so-called partisans, had fled to in an effort to escape Nazi persecution.

Despite their bleak surroundings–inhuman living conditions and ever-present danger–Jack and Rochelle began a careful courtship that flourished into a deepening love. With a new determination and a thirst for revenge, Jack led partisan raids on nearby Polish farms that were occupied by Nazi sympathizers. Thus was their resistance waged, often in ignorance of what atrocities were being committed in the rest of Europe. Cut off from the outside world, the partisans’ survival depended on desperate, makeshift warfare strategies. Maintained by a blind faith and their deep love for one another, Jack and Rochelle survived circumstances that had never before been imposed on a people.
Today, Jack and Rochelle are part of a small group of resistance fighters whose testimony offers all readers and students a unique perspective on this terrible episode of human history. Lawrence Sutin herein presents his parents’ story in their own words, stories that he has heard throughout his life. In a thoughtful afterword, he reflects on his experiences as a child of Holocaust survivors.


Ably edited by their son Lawrence, the instructive and inspiring Holocaust narrative of Jack and Rochelle Sutin provides ample proof of both the degradation implicit in the Shoah and the astounding strength and courage Jewish partisans demonstrated in their battle against the attempted Nazi genocide. “Jack and Rochelle” is a deceptively easy book to read; the chapters consist of blended chronological testimonies; Lawrence Sutin honorably avoids imposing his own voice on his parents, instead allowing his mother and father to describe, in their own words, their own cadences, the horrors they faced and the gritty resolve they mustered to fight back. Rarely does a subtitle so accurately depict the contents of a memoir as does their own: “A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance.”

Both Jack and Rochelle came from educated and enlightened eastern European Jewish families. As the two of them chronicle the onset of anti-Jewish depradations, they remind us of the rich texture of their pre-war lives. This dimension of humanity, of lives complicated by strained love relations, competitive urges and the deeply felt need for independence, makes the Nazi onslaught all the more unsettling and horrific.

Several themes predominate in the Sutins’ braided lives. First is the omnipresence of Jew hatred, whether it be in pre or post war Poland, in the brutally repressive Soviet bureaucracy or the finely honed hatred of Nazi Germany. Indifferent neighbors, vicious anti-Jewish Russian partisans (who commit ghastly sexual offenses against women who want nothing more than to join them in battling a common enemy), and the active participants in human eradication, the Nazis, make the Sutins’ world one of constant peril. Survival is never taken for granted, and Jack and Rochelle’s descriptions of their physical torment, often undertated, is wrenching to read. Personal sacrifice exists on every level: physical, social and spiritual. Rochelle’s first child dies within a day due to exposure when its survival imperils others; Jack is literally covered with pus-filled boils as a result of living outside the boundaries of human habitation.

Yet, neither Jack or Rochelle never complain, never give themselves away to self-pity. Instead, they are infused with the Judaic command to remember and Rochelle’s mother’s insistence on revenge, to take action to avenge the murder of their people. In this charged atmosphere of sanguine justice and physical erosion, amidst the rank and fetid habitat of primitive partisan surroundings, hope and love survive. Jack dreams that Rochelle will appear. She does. Despite sexual abuse and spiritual depletion, Rochelle gradually accepts and receives Jack’s love. He has never stopped loving her.
“Jack and Rochelle” is above all a cry of victory. It is a cry that murder and eradication cannot conquer a people. It is a cry that memory and consecration to life will prevail over death. It is a cry that love can endure, even if it is formed in the absolute crucible of death.

Book Review: A countess below the stairs by Eva Ibbotson

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After the Russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian Countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties—not to mention her instant attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme. To make matters worse, Rupert appears to be falling for her as well. As their attraction grows stronger, Anna finds it more and more difficult to keep her most dearly held secrets from unraveling. And then there’s the small matter of Rupert’s beautiful and nasty fiancée..
I am emotionally winded by this book in the best possible way! Whether it’s the time of year and the bitter winter snow outside that made this book hit the spot the way it did I’m not certain.

But the poetic language, the sheer romanticism, the wit, the Shakespearean farce element, the astute social, historical, cultural, sexual, racial and class observations were all perfectly balanced to create one of the most richly feel-good romances I’ve read in years.

I’ve always admired Eva Ibbotson for hitting that intimate personal note in her stories, even the lighter childrens’ books like Which Witch?. But in this book which is for young adults she’s created a masterpiece of evocative storytelling combined with painfully accurate social dynamics which made me weep several times. I saw Ollie’s cruel heartbreak coming a mile off and was crying in sympathy in advance!

I shed tears for Rupert’s war-trauma and Uncle Sid’s elderly wandering eye. It’s very, very obvious from the get-go that the end is wreathed in a halo of golden roses, so the fun lies in finding out how the star-crossed lovers get each other. The strength here, as with most of Ibbotson’s work, lies in a beautifully worked out supporting cast of fantastic characters: Mr. Proom and his batty mother, the Herrings, The Honourable Olive, Baskerville the boarhound, Minna, James, the Scottish Gardener, Pinny…the list goes on. We get just enough background and depth from the author to really get a feel for who all these people are. For instance, Proom the butler isn’t just the sum of his one-liners, as is so often the case with side characters of that kind. In fact, he’s one of the real heroes of the tale.

The one slight hiccup is Anna herself, though even she isn’t entirely stereotypical as the huge-hearted heroine. But she is such a very radiantly good girl, so beatific, going so far as to describe someone thinking about her using the phrase ‘her votive hands’, that it’s almost impossible to live her struggles with her. Things will be all right almost by default around Anna, so that her anguish, her trouble, her heartache become less powerful than the colour palette of her joys, quirks and generosity.

Having said that, one of the more clever ideas in this book is that she isn’t really so very secret. Everyone around her recognizes her genteel birth in her manner, turn of phrase, bearing, appreciation of art and music and education. They decide to humour her for her own sake and play along in her presenting herself as a housemaid. Her curtsies had me in stitches, it was so vivid. And luckily she isn’t so unreal as to not feel sympathy for her. She has a personality of Sarah Bernhardt like proportions: Sensuous, generous and with great dramatic flair, but her heart’s in the right place. Just that tiny little bit too Holy, you know? But she is the mulch that the other characters thrive on and for that, she has to be the way she is.

The other aspect that makes this book more than just a throwaway romance are the racism and Ubermensch theories two of the characters so passionately flaunt, with the utter conviction of their being right. Set as the story is between two World Wars, it is an intelligently shuddersome foreshadowing of the drive behind the eugenics theories of the Nazi’s. Which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly standard fare for an otherwise beautifully frothy upstairs/downstairs love story. And the sexuality is a wonderfully matter of fact part of the narrative; again, to tackle, among other things, the sexual feelings of an elderly person so sensitively is clever and moving. Are we really so uptight that we need to ignore that elderly folk feel lustful, too?

I agree with Sid’s bottom-pinching being harmless, because nothing else is made available to someone like him: Elderly people are to become sexless when they reach a certain age and I find this objectionable. Ibbotson makes a point of mentioning that Sid never had anything but willing partners and if the maids are able to laugh off a bit of a grope, why can’t we? In fact, their understanding was very touching, I thought.

The writing itself is delightfully poetic and drips with atmospheric descriptions, be it of food, dress, gardens or rooms. An instant all time favourite which left me with the most perfect Christmas feeling!

Book Review: Royal Panoply by Carolly Erickson

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From medieval conqueror to Renaissance autocrat to Victorian Empress to modern melodrama, Royal Panoply is the story of some of the most fascinating people in world history. With her trademark blend of probing scholarship, lively prose, and psychological insight, Carolly Erickson focuses on each monarch’s entire life—from the puny, socially awkward Charles I, to the choleric, violent William the Conqueror, to the well-meaning, deeply affectionate Queen Anne, who was so heavy she had to be carried to her coronation. Royal Panoply recaptures the event-filled, often dangerous, always engaging lives of England’s kings and queens, set against the backdrop of a thousand years of Britain’s past

Glimpses of the lives of each of the British monarchs from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II. A great book for getting a basic idea of the highlights of each reign and popularly held opinions regarding each monarch and his/her life plus a few less well-known tidbits (to me) (little facts like when George I came to rule England all the general public knew of him was that he was a German general who had locked his beautiful wife in a tower for twenty years and killed her lover after he discovered evidence of an adulterous affair).

There are times however, when I felt that Erickson oversimplified some of the individuals or took a stand on an event or a personality without substantiating it (you know, statements like: Pomp and Circumstance IV loathed High and Mighty for his superior graces and popularity with the people). Just a little evidence or an allusion to evidence would have made it a much more authoritative work for me. That said, I still enjoyed the book. Hey, and now I can recite the British royal line all the way from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II! (Won’t that be useful for winding up parties?!):0)

Book Review: Wedding Season by Darcy Cosper

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Seventeen weddings. Six months. Only the strong survive. Joy Silverman and her boyfriend, Gabriel Winslow, seem perfect for each other. Living together in New York City, they have everything they want and everything in common–most important, that neither one wants to get married. Ever. But when Joy finds herself obligated to attend seventeen weddings in six months (including those of her father, mother, younger brother, and five of her closest girlfriends), the couple is forced to take a new look at why they’re so opposed to marriage when the rest of the world can’t wait to walk down the aisle. As the season heats up and the pressure mounts, Joy must confront what it means — and what it costs — to be true to one’s self. A witty, wicked comedy of manners in the satirical tradition of Jane Austen and Evelyn Waugh, Wedding Season is an intelligent, laugh-out-loud funny examination of friendship, faith, integrity, and the ideas and institutions that bind us together, shape our lives, and define who we are. “If Jane Austen and Candace Bushnell were to meet for a long drink in a downtown bar, the delightful result might be a contemporary comedy of manners with a decidedly old-fashioned feel. Darcy Cosper has given us just that: a sweet and sharply funny concoction that will have bridesmaids everywhere nodding their heads in recognition.” — Dani Shapiro, author of Family History “Wonderful….Wedding Season is social comedy on a grand scale. A hilarious and urbane primer on getting hitched-or not-in the twenty-first century.” — Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook.



I’m sorry, but when a book is titled “Wedding Season” and the cover art is of a row of pastel colored bridesmaid dresses, it has one purpose in life – to be a bit of brainless fluff with a happy ending for me to read when I’m sick. I guess I should admire it for trying to be more than what it is, but it didn’t really succeed, and I was just annoyed that it didn’t know its place. It was nice to read some chick lit with a protagonist who wasn’t obsessed with getting married, and I was glad that it didn’t just end with her changing her mind and drinking the Kool-Aid (nothing against marriage, in fact I wouldn’t mind getting married myself someday, but it shouldn’t be a requirement in modern society), but the conclusion she drew about marriage in the end was just baffling and unsatisfying

Book Review: The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy

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Shy, plain Lady Jane Parker feels out of place in Henry VIII’s courtly world of glamour and intrigue–until she meets the handsome George Boleyn. Overjoyed when her father arranges their marriage, her joy is abruptly cut short when she meets Anne… George Boleyn is completely devoted to his sister; and as Anne’s circle of admirers grows, so does Jane’s resentment. Becoming Henry’s queen makes Anne the most powerful woman in England; but it also makes her vulnerable, as the King is desperate for an heir. When he begins to tire of his mercurial wife, the stage is set for the ultimate betrayal. Encompassing the reigns of four of Henry’s wives, from the doomed Anne to the reckless Katherine Howard, THE TUDOR WIFE is an unforgettable story of ambition and jealousy, combining the sumptuous historical detail of Philippa Gregory’s novels with the lust and authenticity of the hugely successful TV series THE TUDORS.

Now despite what the description says this is not the most historically accurate book. However I never go into a historical fiction thinking that I am reading a reference book so I can sit back and enjoy. The Tudor wife was a fantastic read for me. It looked into the Tudor court from another point of view. Most of the books I read about the topic center on King Henry (to be expected of course) but I like hearing about the events from other points of view. Jane is often shown and played as a viper and a bit of a vicious woman. This book is no exception she does many things badly and wrong. However look at the situations she was placed into. Can any of us really say we would have done different than she did? I am not sure I could. If you like reading about the Tudor’s and love a good historical fiction that has twists, turns and drama this is going to be a great read for you.

Book Review: Exiles in America: A Novel by Christopher Bram

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Zack Knowles and Daniel Wexler have been together for twenty-one years. Zack is a psychiatrist, Daniel an art teacher at a college in Virginia. In the fall of 2002, a few months before the Iraq War, a new artist in residence, Abbas Rohani, arrives with his Russian wife, Elena, and their two children.

But Abbas is not quite what he seems, and soon he and Daniel begin an affair. After love throws the two families together, politics threatens the future of both in ways no one could have predicted.
A novel that explores how the personal becomes political, “Exiles in America” offers an intimate look at the meaning of marriage, gay and straight, and demonstrates the breathtaking skill and daring imagination that have garnered Christopher Bram widespread critical acclaim.

That Christopher Bram is one of our finer novelists today is a given (The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes, Gods and Monsters, Life of the Circus Animals, In Memory of Angel Clare, etc). EXILES IN AMERICA is a very astutely constructed novel, one that explores the concept of displaced persons, whether those persons be gay men in a straight homophobic town, artists in a world of grounded minds, immigrant visitors in the land of the free, or Muslims in a path of fear guarded closely by the Christian ethic. Mix these possible people in a country post 9/11 and prior to America’s (read Bush’s) declaration of war on Iraq and there is a story brooding.

For the most part Bram finely tunes this novel with well-drawn characterizations, a gift he continues to elucidate in his writing. But something has entered Bram’s writing mind that is a bit disturbing: he seems to have lost some of the respect for his readers that has never happened prior to his novel. There are moments of ‘dumbing down’ the reader by excessive explanations of obvious knowns and even stumbling at the close of the book to speak not in the voice of the characters he has created but in his own vacillating voice as a writer – a section of this otherwise fairly tense read that breaks the magic and adds little.

Daniel, an artist with painter’s block who now only teaches art in Williamsburg, VA, and Zack, a psychiatrist who has given up his New York practice to follow Daniel to his present college teaching position, have been together as a couple for twenty one years, the last ten years at least of which have been an ‘open marriage’: both men are agreed that transient liaisons outside of their marriage are acceptable as long as they talk about them. Daniel, though in his late forties, has fears of aging and continues to pursue flings, while Zack has settled into a nearly asexual state. Into their milieu come a new guest faculty artist, Iranian Abbas and his Russian wife Elena (a couple with two children who also have an open marriage), and soon enough Daniel and Abbas are lusting after each other in what continues long enough to become an affair. The story is centered on how these four people react not only to each others’ needs and fears, but how Zack and Daniel become enmeshed in the growing American suspicion of Middle Eastern ‘potential terrorists’, a factor surfacing when Abbas’ older brother Hassan arrives from Tehran insisting that Abbas, Elena and their children return to Iran because of the incipient war between the US and Iraq. These conflicts focus the instabilities and consequences of the lifestyles of the four friends and introduces an entirely new attitude to Exiles in all its meanings.

Bram writes brilliantly and moves his story at a terrific pace: EXILES IN AMERICA is a difficult book to put down once started. For this reader the only problem other than the ones mentioned above is the lack of charisma: it is difficult to truly care about any of the people in this book. But perhaps that is another ‘alienation’ Bram wants to introduce – a metaphor for the isolation among people that has been heightened by the current preoccupation with distrust of intimacy and people outside our individual realm. Bram poses questions, delivers the goods, and once again proves that he can create a fine story based on a tough theme.

Book Review: Empress by Shan Sa

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A ravishing historical novel of one of China’s most controversial historical figures: its first and only female emperor, Empress Wu, who emerged in the Tang Dynasty and ushered in a golden age. In seventh-century China, during the great Tang dynasty, a young girl from the humble Wu clan entered the imperial gynaecium, which housed ten thousand concubines. Inside the Forbidden City, she witnessed seductions, plots, murders, and brazen acts of treason. Propelled by a shrewd intelligence, an extraordinary persistence, and a friendship with the imperial heir, she rose through the ranks to become the first Empress of China. On the one hand, she was a political mastermind who quelled insurrections, eased famine, and opened wide the routes of international trade. On the other, she was a passionate patron of the arts who brought Chinese civilization to unsurpassed heights of knowledge, beauty, and sophistication.
And yet, from the moment of her death to the present day, her name has been sullied, her story distorted, and her memoirs obliterated by men taking vengeance on a women who dared become Emperor. For the first time in thirteen centuries, Empress Wu flings open the gates of her Forbidden City and tells her own astonishing tale-revealing a fascinating, complex figure who in many ways remains modern to this day.

          
Empress has regal flowing prose and is beautifully written. Unfortunately, the content is anything but beautiful; and the main character, a woman known as Empress Wu, who became the first (and, I believe, only, female emperor in China), metamorphoses from a caterpillar that flaunts the strict female conventions of her time, to a twisted and malicious butterfly with a stinger of pure, lethal venom.

At first, I really liked this book a lot. But then, as Ms. Sa got into the court intrigues, I began to be repulsed. Debauchery runs amok. Torture is the penalty for disloyalty or even disfavor; the emperor keeps a harem full of conniving women who want to be the first to bear the son that will carry on the legacy; Empress Wu, also known as Heavenlight, consorts with several women including her sister (which leads to an extremely disturbing and incestuous subplot that very nearly turned me off the book completely); and it’s basically just one big, royal mess. I couldn’t finish it to the end. I tried, but by page 213 I no longer had any vestiges of respect or liking for the main character.

Now, I’m not sure how historically accurate this book is, but I suspect it could be very close to the truth because court intrigue tends to be one of those things that are stranger than fiction. In fact, reading about this particular group of Chinese royalty reminded me of the Tudor court and the viper’s nest that it was — and who could forget the lovely Borgia family. Anyone? So people who don’t like their histories packaged up prettily and tied with string that bears the subtle hint of nationalism might really like this book. I’m generally in that camp, but the incest and violence and sheer cold-blooded cunning made it a little too difficult to swallow.

If there is anything good to be gained from this book, it is that it really makes you appreciate how far China — and the world, in general — has come with regard to the rights of man, equality between the sexes, and simple human compassion. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be a woman in 600 A.D. — not in China, nor anywhere else for that matter. It’s certainly nice to know that I can go about my daily business without being considered chattel!

Book Review: The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz

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With the stunning revelation surrounding Bliss’s true identity comes the growing threat of the sinister Silver Bloods. Once left to live the glamorous life in New York City, the Blue Bloods now find themselves in an epic battle for survival. Not to worry; love is still in the air for the young vampires of the Upper East Side. Or is it? Schuyler has made her choice. She has forsaken Jack for Oliver, choosing human over vampire. But old loves die hard…. And even coldhearted Mimi seems to suffer from the ties that bind.

Young vampires unite in this highly anticipated fourth installment of the New York Times best-selling series

Book four in the Blue Blood series of books does not disappoint. By this time we are fully lost in the world of the Blue Bloods, the special vampires that are really fallen Angels. I am still taken by the premise that Melissa de La Cruz has gone on for this series and the web that is being weaved draws me deeper in.
It has been over a year since Rio and Schuyler and Oliver have been on the run nearly as long. It would seem as though she has made her choice, but just as she makes a daring move to secure her and Oliver’s safety, she is thrown into the very thing she fears the most and into the arms of the one she can hardly bare to live without. Being her mother’s uncorrupted daughter has made Schuyler the Blue Bloods last hope, but despite the fact that she has embraced her task, she has managed to run from the biggest similarity that she and her mother share, until now. Is her mother right? Are there some loves worth dying for?

Bliss has been in a lost state, struggling just to remember her name. She can’t account for over a year of her life, and there is a Visitor living inside her, taking over whenever he pleases. As Bliss fights to regain control of her mind, body and future, she uncovers the truth of who she is and in the process uncovers a scheme that could undo everyone and everything she has left, but how do you fight something that lives in you? Will she be strong enough to stop the Visitor, before it’s too late?

Mimi has traipsed a crossed the globe, searching for the watcher with her venator team, led by the very one who nearly caused her death, Kingsley Martin. But every time they think they’ve finally caught up, they are left wanting. Is it the year of adventure and near death experiences that has caused Mimi to reevaluate her life, or has she only just found someone that allows her to be as she truly is? Is it just meaningless nothing, an impulse of this life, of this time, or has Kingsley been there, every cycle, pushing her and possibly loving her and worse, her loving him back?

I’m not going to reveal anymore, it would spoil the fun. Once again I was swept away in this complex world, with its vibrant characters, spot on dialog, and nerve wracking plot.

Book Review: Lover Revealed by J.R Ward

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Butch O’Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard-living ex-homicide cop, he’s the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world-to engage in the turf war with the lessers. His heart belongs to a female vampire, Marissa, an aristocratic beauty who’s way out of his league. And if he can’t have her, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers. But fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, he’s found by a miracle, and the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back, though even her love may not be enough to save him.

Butch was not a character I took to right away in the other Black Dagger Brotherhood novels. So when it came time to read his book in the series I will admit I was thinking just to plow through the book and try not to think too much about it. I regret that choice and I regret thinking less of Butch O’Neil. Once again J.R Ward has brought her delicious writing style with her blend of sensual seduction and fast moving action into Lover Revealed. J.R Ward lets us delve more into the back story of Butch why he has been a bit of a drunkard in the past but we than also find out what he has been thinking now.

If you have read the other books you know that he has been living with the Brotherhood. By Lover Revealed he has started to want to get out from under the living situation. It is not because he feels any less loyal to the Brothers, but he wants to feel like his own man. Anyone can understand that right? There is of course the tension still remaining between him and Wraths Ex Mate Marissa.

While I enjoyed the book there are still a few parts that get to me I am still not a fan at all of the “slayers”. The pieces with the slayers are not written badly they are just as good as any other bits it is simply the slayers are annoying and you wish their baby powder smelling selves should just go away. That said there is one interesting bit that crops up and blends well with the entire story having to do with the slayers. So if you enjoy the Black Dagger Brotherhood series you will enjoy Lover Revealed.

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