#93 Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh

The main couple in this one is Max a human cop that was introduced in a previous book as being an honest cop with a natural shield that the Psy couldn't manipulate. The love interest is a Justice Psy, she spends her time going into the minds of criminals and pulling out their memories of crimes and transmitting them to law enforcement. Because of the work Justice Psy don’t have a long shelf life and they are not used for anything but the worst cases. Sophia is at the end of her usefulness and is picked to work a case for Nikita to investigate several suspicious deaths on her staff.  Since Sophia’s Silence training is pretty much broken she wears gloves so she can’t read anyone she accidentally  touches but with Max’s natural shield, she can touch him and a romance starts to bloom between them.  They solve the murders and this book is much more focused on the Psy part of things than on the changelings it was nice not to see the mating bond be the thing that drives the love match.

#94 Play of Passion by Nalini Singh

The main focus of this one is the SnowDancer pack and Drew trying to win Indigo's heart. Indigo is against having a romance with any wolf that is not more dominate than her due to the example of her Aunt's relationship as being the more dominate than her mate. needless to say since Drew isn't in the normal chain of command in the pack Indigo doesn't see him as dominate to her and therefor isn't good enough for her. To muddy the waters in the story one of her old lovers comes back from an overseas assignment and shakes things up for a few chapters. In the end the chemistry and mating bond prevails between them. Not much on the Psy front in this book but I guess that is to be expected with so much of it happening in the previous one.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller by Joanne Harris

I have watched very few episodes of the Third Doctor so I can’t tell if this is on or not with his character. The short story has him near the point of regeneration due to radiation poisoning. He arrives in a small village where every day is April 8th and there is a daily parade of everyone in the village. He is found by the Queen and she “heals” him with the only medicine in the village. The Doctor of course twigs that nothing is as it seems here and quickly solves the mystery. In fact, it seemed the story was wrapped up almost too quickly and it is rather wistful.

Digital copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

#95 Lock In by John Scalzi

In a near future a virus has caused 1% of the world's population to become locked in their own bodies till fully aware but unable to respond. Money is thrown at the problem and a solution of sorts is developed. One is a virtual reality that allows the "locked in" and the unaffected to interact. The other way is a giving them a robot body to walk around with. A third method is also available but much less accessible since it requires someone to have come down with the initial infection but not suffer the total effects of the disease. The locked in can control the body and the owner of the body is in the background but isn’t in the driver’s seat. This method is strictly controlled and licensed and schooling is expensive but fully covered if you complete your contract of employment.  Chris’ first day on the job with the FBI as a sufferer of Hayden’s [lock in] has him paired with someone who used to provide a body that allowed sufferers to control and they are assigned a murder case where it seems the perpetrator is someone with Hayden’s while they were operating someone else’s body. The story does cover quite a bit of how society and laws have changed to adapt to this disease but the secondary feel to the story is also a bit about how people perceive you when they have no clues as to your race or sex.

#96 Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

The third book starts immediately with Sidheag leaving school after a message from her pack. If you have read the Parasol Protectorate then you will know what the message contained and why she left without telling anyone. Sophronia and everyone else is in the dark and they worry even as they are planning for the engagement ball for Sophrnia’s brother. At the ball, chaos happens with the mechanicals and Sidheag shows up with two werewolves. Sophronia and friends leave immediately to try and get Sidheag to Scotland to help her pack and of course on the way discover yet another Pickleman plot. By the end of the book, things have changed quite a bit for her and her friends and should make for some interesting developments in the next book.

Digital copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley