#73 Trader's Leap Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

 All the action on this book focus on the flagship of the Korval clan, Dutiful Passage. Shan is still healing from the psychic wounds he received fighting the Department. Padi is now trying to learn to use her new powers that she has denied for years as well as trying to obtain her trader’s ring.  Shan is also trying to forge a new trade route since so many ports are closed to them due to the banishment off Korval. But luck rides with the clan as he works on a new route to recently opened space that has been controlled by the Department.  A good story that follows only one thread of the clan after the recent events in previous books. There are spoilers to previous books but this can stand as a good start in the universe if you don’t mind knowing what happens in books you haven’t read yet.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

#74 Jolene by Mercedes Lackey

 

This story is set in the Appalachian Mountains with a poor miner’s daughter being sent to her root witch aunt to live. Anna May has always been a sickly child with never enough to eat, her father finally allows the child to live with his wife’s sister, a witchy woman who has always sent them herbal medicines that they have sold for cash.  Anna May quickly becomes healthy and soon shows an aptitude to magic since she is no longer living on poisoned land. Anna May slowly starts to learn how to make potions and infuse them with magic.  As she becomes more comfortable living with her aunt other teachers of magic come to her including Jolene, a magical being that her aunt tells her to watch herself when she is with her.  As Anna grows in power a local evil magician finds out about her and wants her to use to increase his power. A good story and nice to see the Elemental Masters stories move back to America.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

#75 Fortune and Glory by Janet Evanovich

 

This Stephanie Plum book starts right up after Twisted Twenty-Six with the hunt for the keys to the fortune that Grandma Mazur’s recently deceased husband oversaw for his criminal friends.   As Stephanie and Lulu do some looking for anywhere the keys may fit someone else is watching Stephanie and helping her some as she blunders along on her hunt and trying to not get snatched and tortured again for the keys.  We know all these characters and how they will respond to any situation so the introduction of Gabriela as a kickass woman that keeps popping up in the story to introduce the readers to someone who will get their own series was a nice change to the usual teams in the series. 

#76 Passages by Mercedes Lackey

 

Passages is an anthology of short stories set in Valdemar by various writers. Several of the stories are sequels to stories in previous collections but a reader doesn’t need to have read them to understand what is going on in these stories. Both Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon both have entries in this collection.  Misty’s is set during Kerowyn’s early days with her first mercenary company.  Larry’s story is less of a story and more of a short anthropological look into Hawkbrother’s customs.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

#77 Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

The latest installment in the Wayward Children series is a good one for someone to start with. There is no connection to any of the other books and new readers can start fresh without having any backstory spoiled. Current readers of the series are in for a treat with Regan and her adventure in Hooflands. When she has a horrible day at school after trusting a friend with a secret that promptly goes awry. Regan runs from school and takes the back way home by the creek.  After passing into the tree arch that takes her to the Hooflands she finds herself in a place that is populated with centaurs and other mythological hooved beings.  Regan ignores the usual path of any humans that come into Hooflands and instead decides to live with the centaur group that found her. Regan’s story in the Hooflands is complete in this book and there are no cliffhangers about her adventures there.  I’m hoping that we will see more of Regan at some point in the future.  Or even more of the Hooflands with another child finding that door.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss