First in this month’s book reviews: Chimera by Rob Thurman.

I’m a huge fan of Rob Thurman’s work so that may influence my review just a little bit, but I’m trying to keep this objective. The premise of the story in Chimera is that Stefan is a Russian mobster who’s little brother, Lukas, was kidnapped 10 years ago. In those 10 years he has spent all of his free time and money searching for him. Searching even after the police, FBI, and his father have given up. At the beginning of the book Stefan gets word from the man he has searching for Lukas has finally found him.

When I first picked up the book I quite obviously noticed the similarities to her Cal & Niko novels. Both have a pair of brothers, one a “normal” and one a “monster”. At first this bothered me, it felt like Rob was just rehashing her other novels. It only took a short while in to the book to realize that even though the books are similar it was definitely not a cop-out or a rehash of her other work. While the Cal & Niko series and Chimera both include brothers they couldn’t be further apart from each other. Cal & Niko are as close as brothers can be. Always together on whatever they do and fully prepared to die for each other. Stefan and Lukas, or Michael as he prefers to be called, barely speak to each other when they are first reunited. Now, in the 10 years since Lukas/Michael was taken he has been turned in to a living weapon. The ultimate killer. Stefan performs a daring rescue and frees Lukas/Michael from the Institute. And that is when the story really starts to get interesting. That is all the story I’m going to get in to because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone.

The writing in this book is just as good as her other books. Rob just really seems to write brothers extremely well. Which is slightly odd since Rob is a woman. This book is filled with plenty of great action scenes, good touching moments between brothers and plenty of twists and turns to keep you reading straight through. I spent an entire day reading through the book and could not put it down. The plot moves along at a very good pace and is well timed. The dialog really works and truly helps to get the point across that the relationship between the brothers is really strained and quite difficult after a 10 year separation.

Overall I really really enjoyed this book. The only complaint I have is that it doesn’t look like I’ll get any more time with Stefan & Lukas.

Next up on the book review The Office of Shadow by Matthew Sturges.

Matthew Sturges’ first novel Midwinter was a very interesting look at a whole new world of the Fae. It followed a group of people on a quest across the lands of Faerie on behalf of the Queen of the Seelie Fae, Regina Titania. The second book in this world follows one of the characters from the first novel as he embarks on a new career as a Shadow. The shadows are extremely undercover operatives of the Seelie fae who use their enhanced magic and physical skills to avert a war with the Unseelie fae and their ruler Queen Mab. Getting this book was one of those happy times in which I walked in to the bookstore not knowing it was out and happened to see it on the shelf. This was a lovely surprise as I hadn’t even known there was going to be a sequel to Midwinter.

The Office of Shadow starts with a nice prologue introducing you to some Shadows working in one of the worlds connected to Faerie as it is being invaded by Queen Mab’s forces. From there it moves to the recruitment of the newest Shadows. The book then moves on to their training and some early missions.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sturges’ first novel and was… disappointed with Office. I did enjoy the book, but it just wasn’t as good as Midwinter. It almost felt like the book should have been longer than it was. Parts of the novel felt somewhat rushed and I really would have liked more time with the new characters to get to know them better. I understand that the novel is set right before the start of a war so the rushing from what mission to another is understandable. And having the missions go quickly as they do also makes some sense, but overall the  entire story felt rushed.  I do recommend this book if you’ve read the first as Silverdun, the main character in this story, was one of my favorites from the first book. I won’t let what I feel is a less than great book put me off from any of Sturges’ future work though.

Overall, I did like the book, but it really didn’t live up to what I was hoping for from it.

So, thats really all the reviewing I feel like doing today. I’ve been reading plenty of other books(I read all the time). I’ll throw out a list of other books I’ve read recently that I’ve enjoyed.

Mage in Black by Jaye Wells

Cheat the Grave by Vicki Pettersson

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

Skin Deep by Mark Del Franco

and I’ve recently re-read Imager and Imager’s Challenge by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

So, that is my recent reading. I like books.