#112 Closer to Home by Mercedes Lackey

The latest book follows a few months after the last trilogy that dealt with the mystery of Mags. This one does use what Mags has learned about his background to help him with the plot of this one.  It reads like a Romeo and Juliet story for the most part until it gets to the ending.  And then there is a twist to that standard plotline at the end. Nice thing is you don’ t have to have read the previous trilogy to catch what is going on in this book and you really don’t have to have read previous books to understand what is going on.  A good starting point for someone wanting to try this long running series and the plus for long time readers is there is not much of the rehashing of learning to be a herald that that happens  in several of the books.

#113 Otherworld Nights by Kelley Armstrong

This collection of stories comes from previously published stuff from her website or small press novellas.  There are two new stories for this collection that bracket the collation.  They are set in series order and that is rather nice.  For the most part you don’t need to know most of the plot or the universe since what is needed for each plot is explained in each story but the more you know the more you do get out of it. The collection is more for fans of the series but someone wanting to get a feel for the universe will get a good taste even if it does ruin most plot points of the overall series.