eyes.2c Reviews

Six weeks to Skinny Jeans by Amy Cotter DEA Diet, Exercise, Attitude are the author’s 3 basic components of philosophy for weight loss. And I agree but (…she wails, and pummels the nearest cushion) it’s just SO HARD!! The author asks, ‘Do you feel overwhelmed?’ Yes, I do and I’m not even out of the preface. This guide to weight loss certainly presses all the right buttons and uses today terminology touching upon aspects that are being discussed in many venues—from magazines to doctors’ consulting rooms. We have ,(not in any order), BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate and calorie importance, Glycemic Index facts, Insulin levels and clearing the body of such cravings. Those carbs and sugars are so pernicious! I particularly went into alert mode at the little gem that it takes 28 days to change your taste buds—is everything cycled to the monthly calendar? But, I take note and take heart. If I can stay away from sugar (in things like wine, chocolate, Haagen-Dazs and various loved fr...

...'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio! The Shakespeare segue only connects via my head and that because of the battles, lieutenants and the Royal navy, and the improbability of the plot.           When reading The Bastard , (by Brenda Novak) suspend any preconceived ideas about feasibility. Do that and you’ll find yourself in the midst of an amusing and crazy Regency romp.   There’s the young French émigré noblewoman, Jeanette Boucher. She disguises herself as tar boy and hides out on an English warship. Our heroine fortunately runs across an honorable and delicious officer and gentleman—albeit a ‘bastard’.   Against the backdrop of England at the time of the French Revolution and the dawning of the great sea battles, the scenes on the ship conjure a gritty reality of life aboard such vessels—definitely not for the faint hearted. In fact the stark descriptions of seaboard conditions, and even more so, the horrors...

For an easy read in between the hustle and bustle, the hurdy gurdy of the Christmas Season, this collection of four Regency novellas which comprise A Regency Holiday is timely. Sure, sometimes the resolution of a story came so quickly that I thought surely I’ve missed something … but these are short stories, so, no time to dawdle or extend the plot. Mind you I’m not sure that I really ever liked Deverel Brookfield (I had just finished watching Samuel Richardson’s Clarrisa) but ‘tis Christmas time and even the devil is apparently redeemable. And after all these stories are Regency Romances! In short, a graceful introduction to authors that I didn’t know and a quick read during the holiday season when I’m looking for something light and fluffy other than a meringue parfait, particularly post Christmas turkey.

Prior to reading Dreaming of the Wolf (thanks to Netgalley), I decided to start from the beginning of Terry Spear’s Heart of the Wolf series by reading her Wolf Bundle (v.1-3). I am glad I did. Now, having read my way through v.1-7, I have a richer understanding of the relationships between the various lead characters in the series and an entrée into wolf behavior as it translates into werewolf behavior. Each story throws into focus the arresting and often startling journey of discovery—both romantic and mysterious between the lead male and female lupus garou (werewolf).  No you don’t have to start with the first volume. I am glad I did. It deepened my enjoyment of the series as I rode the warp and woof of the Heart of the Wolf tapestry. What can I say? Steamy and sizzling? Definitely!   Filled with personalities who grab your attention? Most definitely?   A series I am now hooked on and will continue to read? Truly and definitely, yes! Journeying through the va...

So I’m watching Forest Gump on TV and, in between, the Ads. And there’s an Ad just come on for fiber and the importance of fiber from grain products. (Just exactly what this book, Wheat Belly is talking about in terms of wheat and other whole grain products and belly fat)….and Oh Yes, it’s not just wheat we have to worry about! But an eye opener of a detail I picked up on is the concept that today’s wheat is not what it was during our grandparent’s day due to several factors including gene modification. This central point of the way wheat has changed and how that change in turn affects our bodies is pretty compelling. What are the scientists and producers doing to us!! Not to mention that we should be reading all the nutritional info on our bottles and cans and jars of food as wheat is an ingredient present in heaps if products. If you’re a celiac this is beyond grim. I must admit I have been toying prior to reading this book, about reducing or cutting out wheat, but the arguments i...

Romance and intrigue in a time of King making and wars against the background of Eleanor of Aquitaine 's courts and the rules of honor and love--The Courtly Code--made much of by our heroine. Adding romantic intrigue we have a tall, dark and, much maligned hero fresh from the Crusades albeit tainted with Saracen blood. To match him we have the gorgeous, honorable, ice-maiden heroine. Unfortunately she does becomes somewhat tiring with her proclamations about courtly conduct. Trapped in the middle of royal intrigue and whim, the machinations of claiming thrones and kingdoms by Henry, Eleanor and Eleanor’s sons, Alienore is never sure which side she should take, which is more honorable. Of course the pages sizzle with sexual frission as Ailenore and Raven fight their attraction, caught between their particular loyalties and duties and their desire. They both do their best to repudiate and stamp down this attraction but the fires of desire consume them and ignite t...

Locked as I have been into the Valdemar universe, Mercedes Lackey’s Five Hundred Kingdom’s series is far more enjoyable than I originally anticipated. I guess as writers develop and explore new avenues their fans must join them—or leave. I chose to stay. It seems that every time I turn around there’s a new movie, book or television show that’s centered on Grimm’s story of Little Red Riding Hood where surprise the wolf is no mere wolf but a Were. Yes and the cover seemed to set that up. So, I wondered! After reading Beauty and the Werewolf I wondered no more. Lackey’s insightful development of the Little Red Riding Hood--and Cinderella (Bella) and Beauty (of the Beast variety), archetype or rather archetypes, is an excellent read. The characters are strong and believable yet the story retains its fairytale/fantasy essence. Isabella Beauchamp is cast in the role of Beauty/Little Red Riding Hood—. She is also the eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant, with a stepmother and two stepsiste...

The mind boggles perceiving Reeves (Jeeves of Steven Fry fame) as an automation being charged via his belly button--unlike those German automations! Automation or not, Reeves has lost none of his ‘grey matter’ (as Bertie calls it) due to incarceration in a cupboard in an attic for many years. Bertie Worcester is still the inane upper British class feather brain he’s always been—only more so if that’s at all possible! This is an amusing romp that doesn’t tax the reader’s brain cells, although it may at times strain their credulity. The action is scattered throughout with hapless British sayings and amusing anecdotes and strange automations. For instance, at the Drone’s club, when it is declared that this was an emergency because Reggie has aunt trouble and needed to consult “like the Red Sea, when confronted by Moses holding a note from his mother’s sister, the throng parted,”. Such is the understanding of the gentlemen. I kept visualizing Steven Fry and Hugh Laurie in full flight c...

Having driven around the area of Las Vegas and down to the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago, and having travelled many times through Central Australia to Cooper Pedy and Alice via the Oodnadatta Track, I felt the searing desert heat lift from the pages of the book and through to my skin. Yes, Harrison certainly captured the heat. I must admit I thought what are you doing here people! Well, I know they were following the storyline. Me, I was experiencing the way the desert sun sapped every ounce of energy, every drop of moisture from you and the recollection of murmured prayers to keep the Holden moving, air conditioning turned off to lessen pressure on engine. ‘…we do stupid stuff for each other just because we like you.’ Get ready for the ‘Great American Family Road Trip … full of unhappy people heading west’ across the searing landscape from Cincinnati via Las Vegas to San Francisco . Rachael and the gang are off to the annual witches’ convention to have her rei...

                                                         … ‘another Kardith’s leap?’ I quite enjoyed Northlight. Enough that I bought Ross‘s other novel Jaydium in order to explore her writing further …and of course I am a Darkover fan. For some reason I was left with the feeling that the characters in Northlight had more going for them than what was in print. (Very post modern) Don’t get me wrong. The characters are forceful, they are fully present, and I liked them, yet somehow their potentials are not as realized as I felt they could be. Or maybe it’s the novel’s ending that is not as fully realized for me. Ross‘s evocative use of language is excellent. Having just come through a snow filled, minus temperat...

A McKinley fan from way back, I’m unsure as to whether I enjoyed Pegasus because I’m a fan or for the story. It could simply be that I realize that I have to wait for the next book to be published and I am in no mood to leave this place. All the right ingredients are here but things seemed a little wordy to begin. We have a story filled with feisty and believable heroes, a Magician’s Guild with dastardly mages like Fthoom, ‘whose eyes glittered-like jewels in sunlight, not like human eyes at all’, pegi shamans; indeed a myriad of aspects colliding in the mystery of time and happenstance, of tradition and what is and what could be. Towards the end of the book I had more questions than at the beginning. I found myself fearful of what the future holds for this amazing world—what wicked plots. It seems an unnamed dread overshadows the pegi-human alliance, possibly its very survival. Overtones point to Fthoom as a key player here. The cross cultural relationships between Pegasus and hu...

'announce me to you master...the name is Crispin Guest' Murder and courtly intrigue recalling the people involved in the Tracker’s fall from grace are woven into Book 2 of the Crispin Guest novels including Lancaster, the Abbot of Westminster Abbey, and of course Richard. As a character, Guest has developed further in Westerson’s second novel. He’s rounding out, has substance and feels like an old friend. He’s still being beaten up by the Sheriff, still stiff with pride about being a knight and the inherent differences in class in 14 th Century England , and still quoting Socrates. We glimpse his unbroken ideals when he talks about his philosophy about life to Liveth. She asks him, ‘Why not become an outlaw on the highways? Other knights struck by poverty take to it readily enough.’ Eventually Crispin replies that life is more than climbing out of poverty, ‘…men need a challenge. They need to feel useful, that they fill an important place in the world.’   (p.108) ‘ The Tr...

So I've just reread Veil of Lies (thank you local library) by Jeri Westerson as a prelude to reading her latest novel ,  The Demon's Parchment. This has been burning a hole in my Kindle pocket since I bought it before Christmas - as a re a couple of titles. Now to reread Serpent in the Thorns and then start on my Westerson's latest title! Yay! Oh! I did divert by way of Robin McKinley's new title Pegasus , and then of course had to reread The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. And somewhere in between all that I reread Georgette Heyer's, Devil's Cub (I cut my reading teeth on Georgette Heyer, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Mills & Boon, Barbara Cartland and my mother's True Romance comics, or rather in today speak, 'graphic' novels') Oops! I did digress to Never After that contains 4 short stories by Lauell K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M. Liu and Sharon Shinn. I had this title on hold at the library as I can't afford to be b...

Having read 'Wren to the Rescue' many moons ago it was interesting to see how far Wren had come as a character. I quite enjoyed catching up as it were and may go back and read the in between happenings from the series.  ** Look for further reviews at: http://www.librarything.com/work/10617132

Opening with the main protagonist explaining how he had arrived at his current state throws us right into the action Michael O’Connor has been in a coma for four years as a result of a fellow prisoner’s escape en route to jail. Michael has awoken to a different US justice system, where criminals are no longer jailed but tethered, where on the surface the system appears to be working, but below that surface is a sinister, vigilante attitude towards criminals. Circumstances have no place. Prisoners are less than human. Human rights are dead. (and by extension the society's) I felt like I was reading Clockwork Orange meets Big Brother meets 1984. (I later read that C.J. West sees his novel as “a modern 1984 meets Prison Break.") The supposition of the novel was fine, I did get drawn into the action and followed Michael‘s rehabilitation process in this changed society. The controllers of this process are one dimensional, dehumanized by their very role. The ending was somewhat s...

The exploits of urban shaman Joanne Walker, Seattle police detective extraordinaire, continue. Once more Walker ’s best planned intentions go astray creating havoc during a new murder investigation. Sure she intuitively connects many of the dots of the case, if she could only solve her own relationship challenges and inner turmoil this would be an added bonus. As Joanne herself explains, ‘I was bad at relationships. I was bad at reading between lines, at figuring out what people really meant if they didn’t actually say it, and at being charming or flirty or whatever I was, exactly that women were supposed to do to attract men. My skill sets lay along the lines of taking apart car engines, drinking grown men under the table—and more recently—solving esoteric murders.' The death of a Native American dancer under bizarre circumstances and the disappearance of some of the homeless of Seattle are seemingly unrelated. Yet even the most distant of relationships sometimes ...