Archive for the ‘Light Fantasy’ Category

GHOSTWALKERS BOOK 2: MIND GAME
Christine Feehan
Performed by Tom Stechschulte
ISBN:  978-0515138092 (Mass Market Paperback)
B000MEYIP2 (Unabridged Audio Book)
B001KPZ2KW (Kindle eBook)
July 2004 (Mass Market Paperback)
January 2007 (Unabridged Audio Book)
July 2004 (Kindle eBook)
Penguin Putnam/Jove Books/Recorded Books Inc.
Paranormal Romance/Sci Fi
Romantic Suspense
Thriller
Mass Market Paperback, Unabridged Audio Book, and eBook

Years before this story begins, a brilliant scientist, Dr. Peter Whitney (murdered in SHADOW GAME) once experimented on a group of orphan children with a marked tendency for having psychic ability.  One of those children Dahlia Le Blanc, was extremely difficult to control.  The experiments which enhanced her own psychic ability and amazing telekinetic talents when genetically enhanced made her a danger to others when emotionally upset (as well as made her violently sick).  Dahlia was sent off with caretakers and a handler to a remote spot in the Louisiana bayou.  Dahlia has been working for a covert arm of the government but now a traitor within that service has earmarked her for assassination.

Dr. Lily Whitney (from SHADOW GAME) has been looking for the rest of the orphans she had grown up with; who like herself had been experimented upon.  Finally learning of Lily’s whereabouts, one of the Ghostwalkers, Nicolas Trevane, was sent to rescue and bring Dahlia back ‘home’ so that she could be taught by Lily to control and learn to live with her emotions and alleviate some of the debilitating after-effects of her powers.  Nicolas and Dahlia forged a strong bond and the sexual attraction between them is mind-blowing but Dahlia is afraid that making love would send them both up in flames – literally!

*** In MIND GAME the second book in Feehan’s Ghostwalker series she brings us back to the group of men with military training and enhanced psychic skills she introduced in SHADOW GAME.  This follow-up delves deeper into this particular volume’s lead characters of Nicolas Trevane and Dahlia Le Blanc fleshing out their characters and motivations much deeper than was done to the leads in SHADOW GAME.

Both leads were incredibly interesting and powerful psychic talents, although Nicolas after having been taught some control lessons from Lily was much more capable of handling his powers and being an “anchor personality” in order to be able to help Dahlia to disperse a lot of her pent up energy.  Dahlia’s talents were both amazing and frightening for her and for this reader.  Feehan did a wonderful job in creating Dahlia’s talents and letting Nicolas in on some of it so that he could deal and try to help her. One of the parts I really enjoyed and wish would have been expanded upon later in the book was how with Dahlia’s help Nicolas was able to use the healing power his grandfather had always told Nicolas he possessed.   It would have been great to see the two of them use all that wonderful healing energy  for more amazing things.  Maybe in a future book?

Additionally, in spite of the thrilling adventurous pace, and gripping edge-of-the-seat excitement of the many near death ambushes and skirmishes, Feehan inserted some humor and laughter for our couple to lighten the mood now and again which alleviated some of the stress this reader endured while listening to the adventure.   And once again, as this was an unabridged audio book I listened to, I applaud the reader Tom Stechschulte for his amazing job of creating the many varied voices of the players in his performance of the MIND GAME.

Bottom line: Another stellar read from the brilliant Queen of the Paranormal genre and highly recommended both as a stand alone or read consecutively in this series!

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON
Sarah Addison Allen
Performed by Rebecca Lowman
ISBN: 978-0553807219 (Hard Cover)
B001NLL784 (Kindle eBook)
March 16, 2010 (Hard Cover)
March 16, 2010 (Kindle eBook)
Bantam Books/Random House Audio
Contemporary Women’s Fiction/Light Fantasy
Hard Cover and Kindle eBook

Courtesy of Amazon

I enjoy Sarah Addison Allen’s writing and I did enjoy The Girl Who Chased the Moon. However, nothing yet comes even close to comparing to Garden Spells, her debut novel which I enjoyed so much, it still remains at the top of my favorite books list.

Teen aged Emily Benedict has returned to her mother’s hometown and moved in with her grandfather, who happens to be a gentle giant. Here Emily struggles to justify her image of the hard working and dedicated, charitable Dulcie Shelby with the spoiled girl who grew up in Mullaby before abandoning everything she knew and never looking back. What Emily finds is a small town where nothing is quite what it seems at the same time it’s exactly what it needs to be. Magic and mystery are the name of the game in this small North Carolina town, with rooms where wallpaper changes on its own, odd lights dance across the land late at night, and homemade cakes are filed with hope and love.

Julia Winterson lives to bake for her fellow townspeople, but she has her own secrets to hide and mistakes to fix. When she meets young Emily, these two young women form a bond of friendship that helps both of them overcome the secrets of their pasts. Julia is a changed woman from the girl who was Dulcie’s rival in town, unable to completely let go of the mistakes of her past and the hope of finding what she once lost.

Sarah Addison Allen is a brilliant writer who combines fairy tale magic with life in small charming Southern towns, and tops it all off with tantalizing foods and a captivating cast of characters. The Girl Who Chased the Moon has everything I have come to expect from one of Allen’s novels. I fall in love with the people who populate these stories, feeling like they are dear friends by the time the final page is turned.

That being said, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, just didn’t quite keep me captivated as Allen’s novels usually do. All of the right ingredients were here, but something extra was missing, a little bit of spice to jazz things up and take this from a pleasant read to a can’t-put-it-down story. I can’t pinpoint quite what it was about this one that made me feel like it was lacking, but it took me a lot longer to finish this one than I would have expected. However, in spite of my feeling of something missing, I am still a die hard fan of rising star Sarah Addison Allen and I will continue to look forward to each new novel she releases.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2010. All rights reserved.