Wild Women's Weekend

Title: Wild Women's Weekend
Author: Lynne Kaufman
ISBN: 0778320545
Publisher: Mira
First Published: June 2004
Pages: 265


Mystery


Four women friends (Ann, Maria, Sabrina and Deb call themselves "The Coven") get together for their annual weekend get away. They head out Ann's beach house which is on the California coast. The women have named the cabin - Nirvana. The first night they decided to kick it up a notch and head over to a local bar - The Last Roundup. They drink and dance the night away. At they bar, they meet a drifter named Hughie and he asks them for a ride. They hesitate at first, but then they think 4-to-1 and they give him a lift.

Instead of dropping him off when they get to the campground, they feel bad that he will be sleeping in the rain and take him back to the beach house. They have more to drink and are having a good time - then their weekend of fun turns bad. The next morning they find their guest dead. The quartet decides to bury the drifter so that they would not have to deal with the police. They paniced.

The women do not talk about that night again...until Ann finds out that they will be doing construction work by mile marker 13 - where they buried the drifter. That's where the story takes off on a wild ride.

1. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
2. Danse Macabre - Laurell K. Hamilton
3. The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
4. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
5. A Killer Stitch - Maggie Sefton
6. Mistreal's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton
7. Rain Village - Carolyon Turgeon
8. Black Moon Rising - Damien Ashton
9. The Demon Awakes - R.A. Salvatore **up next
10. Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
11. Ophelia - Lisa Klein
12. Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
13. Wild Women's Weekend - Lynne Kaufman

Added:
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee **added after list was created

Danse Macabre

Title: Danse Macabre
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
ISBN: 0425207978
Publisher: Penguin Group
First Published: June 2006
Pages: 496

Paranormal


I actually finished this book last weekend, but haven't had time to post about it. So here it is.

The book opens up with Anita's worst fear of being pregnant and in Anita's world there are many men to choose from as to who is the father. Anita is several weeks late, but is her usually way thinks that if she doesn't confirm the possibility it might not be. This pregnancy comes at bad timing, as always. Jean-Claude has invited Masters Vampires from other cities in order to come to some sort of agreement for artistic vampires to travels between cities to do shows without having to worry about "crossing boarders" so to speak. The pregnancy fear is present through most of the book, but that initial idea of traveling artists seems to die at the close of chapter 1. From then on out it's all about other Master offering their people to be Anita's new pomme de sang and people trying to find out just how powerful Jean-Claude and his people are.

Anita's ardeur begins to takes on a life of its own and seems to be seeking out powerful lovers to satisfy it. We also learn that Anita now has a third strange of lycanthropy in her blood. Aside from leopard and wolf, we now find out she has lion and one other unidentifiable strand in her bloodstream. Then she has a very bad incident where she is almost drained dead and Lilly (wererat doc) had to give her blood to survive but wouldn't say which type of blood she gave. I'm predicting that in the next book Anita will be able to call rats as well. Hamilton plants the seed that Anita might just possible be a panwere (able to carry several different strands of lyconthropy).

Anita has another power burst and through it all those connected to her gain powers as well. Asher now has an animal to call. Seems like powers are gained with each new book now, but these powers are never fully developed in the story and just sort of there. It's almost too much power to even be believable if you have followed this series from the first book.

I enjoy this series very much, but I have mixed reviews about this book. This series seems to be heading more toward the erotica and less mystery/horror. The whole series seems to have shifted. I miss the old Anita who use to kick some real ass! We never read anything about her previous life anymore. There are no more cases for her solve. She seems to have been swallowed up into Jean-Claude's world. Everything seems to be about protecting the Master of the City. Hamilton's characters are developing powers so quickly that I don't see how she can keep this series going for much longer. Anita herself is extremely powerful for a human that it seems to be bordering along the line of convenience.

1. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
2. Danse Macabre - Laurell K. Hamilton
3. The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
4. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
5. A Killer Stitch - Maggie Sefton
6. Mistreal's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton
7. Rain Village - Carolyon Turgeon
8. Black Moon Rising - Damien Ashton
9. The Demon Awakes - R.A. Salvatore
10. Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
11. Ophelia - Lisa Klein
12. Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
13. Wild Women's Weekend - Lynne Kaufman **up next

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee **added after list was created