Ace of Aces Books

If you are a fink fan, you have to own this book. Where do I begin? Ace and Kali have been part of the Fink culture for decades, working with "Big Daddy" Roth - learning Fink art and pinstriping from the masters. This book captures fink art in all forms - posters, pinstriping, body art - you name it. Some people call this 'low brow' art - I call it the awesome ability to mix man, machine, and a little wackiness to create an art category all of its own.

Ace and Kali provide great full color pages of their own art, of which they are masters, and have been trained by the masters. This is by far the best book I have on this type of art...and I can study their work for days...going back to the book time and again.

If you appreciate the crafstmanship and wackiness that go into Fink art, you will LOVE this book. It is high quality, glossy color and full of "Finkness" I give it 5 stars all the way!

Casey (Fink Fan)

Workshop of Filthy Creation: The Art of Johnny Ace and Kali Verra

I have loved cars since I was 4 years old. I remember drawing dragsters with crayons on the kitchen table. Johnny and Kali's art bring me back to a time of hang ten t-shirts,the Archies on 8 track, and Big Daddy Ed Roth's rat fink art. I have enjoyed reading it cover to cover. There is just so much there that each time I go back to look at it I find things I missed. Put this book on your coffee table and it's sure to start a conversation or two! The book is very fun and I highly recommend it!
K vick - 30roadster on the HAMB

Finally after what seems like, and may have been years It's here! These two are the most underated artists out there. No one comes close to matching the authentic feel of Monster art. The vibrant colors are a trademark of the thing with two heads that is Johnny Ace and Kali Vera. There's lotsa people doin Monster art out there but very few are doin it right. Ace and Kali are up there with Basil Gogos in my Book and if ya only buy one book this year make sure this is the one! Like The Pizz said, "Big Daddy Roth would be proud." And I'm proud to call these two friends! Buy it!

Having grown up during the 1960s and 70s, and enjoyed building monster model kits, reading Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, watching Creature Features on TV, drooling over any Big Daddy Roth and Rat Fink item, and so on, then spending the last 30 years playing in Punk ROck and Roll bands (The Thing, Electric Frankenstein, The Kung Fu Killers), this amazing book covers Pop Culture life in America with the kind of imagery that only Johnny Ace and Kali Vera can do, thanks to their long time experience in the scene and rich art skills.
Every page is exciting and grabs you immediately. Full rich vibrant color, drooling beasts, this is the closest anyone will get to vein of gold that Big Daddy Roth mined. But, this books also goes beyond simple homage to their roots, and shows the historical development of their unique American made style over the years.

Not only do you get a book full of cool poster art, but also you get a chance to see the many other projects that they have worked on so well.

Within the pages of this book, Johnny Ace and Kali Vera prove that they deserve a much higher profile and are due much more recognition than some of the more well known people in this field.

AND, in this age of laziness and instant crap, they actually do their own hand made drawings instead of using a tracing box! Imagine that!

You can't go wrong by getting this book!!!!

Ace & Kali have found a way to instantly transport you back to high school when you sat in class and studied the Big Daddy Roth t-shirt ads in the HOT ROD, CAR CRAFT mags that were hidden in your desk. The book contains other stuff too, like music theme posters, sculpted icons, and alot of other good stuff. My favorites are the hot rod monsters, but every rendering on every page deserves close examination. Suggest you buy two copies, 'cause you're sure to wear out the first one.

This is a really great self-study book. Although I was an "A" student in my accounting principles courses, I never did feel like I really understood everything I needed to understand, and now that some time has gone by and I am thinking about studying some finance and banking classes.

Accounting Ace 911 was a very good review. The moment I started reading this book, I could hardly pull myself away from it. It made the basic concepts in accounting very clear in an easy-to-understand manner. This is a great study book for starters who want to get some basic accounting training.

Also, English is a second language for me, and this book was easy to read, but not over-simplified. This is one the things I liked the most.

This is a really great self-study book. Although I was an "A" student in my accounting principles courses, I never did feel like I really understood everything I needed to understand, and now that some time has gone by and I am thinking about studying some finance and banking classes.

Accounting Ace 911 was a very good review. The moment I started reading this book, I could hardly pull myself away from it. It made the basic concepts in accounting very clear in an easy-to-understand manner. This is a great study book for starters who want to get some basic accounting training.

Also, English is a second language for me, and this book was easy to read, but not over-simplified. This is one the things I liked the most.

Finally an accounting book that I understood.Thank you Gregory Mostyn for writing a book that is easy to understand the accounting foreign language--I was hopeless. I'm so glad that there are educators like you to help those of us who are not the natural "accountant brain." After work, my brain is so exhausted. your method of teaching helped me get through my intimidation of accounting. I wish more educators could teach like you in our fast-paced society--THANKS SO MUCH!

Finally an accounting book that I understood.Thank you Gregory Mostyn for writing a book that is easy to understand the accounting foreign language--I was hopeless. I'm so glad that there are educators like you to help those of us who are not the natural "accountant brain." After work, my brain is so exhausted. your method of teaching helped me get through my intimidation of accounting. I wish more educators could teach like you in our fast-paced society--THANKS SO MUCH!

I provide content and training services; so I am keenly aware when content is helping or thwarting my learning. Accounting Ace 911 came to my attention because I needed a book that covered accounting basics, completely and clearly--especially bookkeeping procedures. I now have volumes 1 and 2 on my desktop, and am spending a few hours a week using them.

The Accounting Ace books are big but not scary. They are big because in addition to content, the books include case studies, exercises with answers, and reviews of basic math. The books also use large fonts and lots of white space (great for making notes!).

The books are well-organized, using learning objectives as a roadmap. The table of contents (TOC) and index are too thin for me, but this problem is alleviated by detailed TOCs at the front of major sections, and scanning that is made easier by "sign-post" headings in the left margin. It also helps that the content is thorough enough that my questions are answered as soon as or shortly after I think of them.

Though the primary target audience for the books appears to be college students, anyone who needs a "leg up" on basic accounting will find Accounting Ace 911 is helpful. The style and tone are friendly, not at all academic, and even humorous at times (there are cartoons at unexpected moments, just when you need a grin). For me, the books make it easier to learn about the ugly, painful subject of accounting.

This book has clear answers and good questions, but there are a helluva lot of typos and mistakes in the text (especially for a 2nd edition) which can make things confusing. In the data sufficiency section tests there are no answer choices, so that makes that entire test section almost worthless. Having said that it does give you a lot of information about how to solve the various problems, but again just disappointing that there are so many errors in the text.

I found this book to be excellent for sorting problems into groups and learning what common principles are behind related problems. The book has a cool list of ¡°tips¡± imbedded in the solutions section which helped me grasp the common principles behind problem groupings. Even as a liberal arts major and former investment banker, I found a good number of these math and verbal tips simple but not necessarily obvious and enjoyed having them spelled out for me. Examples: Tip #48: ¡°Two rectangular solids my have identical surface areas but different volumes (and vice versa)¡± and Tip #92: ¡°If A is thought to be causing B, the idea that B is causing A is called reverse causation and casts serious doubt on the notion that A is really causing B.¡± The book has a wonderful review of analytical writing and a nice short grammar review in the appendix. This book will teach you how to do problems, and I found it a great complement to the GMAT Official Guide, which has gobs of practice problems but doesn¡¯t deal with how problems work conceptually. In summary, although I was a bit skeptical at first, I thought this book was well deserving of its claim to be ¡°the #1 skill-building GMAT book.¡±

I think this book is invaluable for someone who's preparing the GMAT. It focus on topics that students need to master to get a reasonably high score in GMAT. This approach is quite differenty from other text where they simply list a series of problems for students to work on. I feel this approach is much more effective in helping students to answer the more difficult questions in GMAT.

Excellent skills-building tool that closed the gap in my preparation for the GMAT, which other prep books weren't doing. The author does a fabulous job of providing the lowdown on the question types that recur on the test and the approaches that actually work, and presenting them in a way that's easy for time-poor test takers to digest. Indispensable in helping this test taker hit the 95th percentile. Absolutely worth the investment.

I found 'Ace the GMAT' to be, by far, the most helpful book of all of the GMAT preparation books I used. While the Kaplan GMAT book and the official GMAT guide published by ETS are both invaluable, I nevertheless found the tips and strategies provided by the 'Ace the GMAT' book to be the most comprehensive, concrete and ultimately helpful. The strategies included to tackle the math section were particularly good, especially the chapter regarding questions on probability. Overall, I do not think that anyone's GMAT prep-book arsenal is complete without this book.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

I bought the cards for students I tutor for SAT/ACT/GED. I have them memorize the cards first. Otherwise, I'd have to dictate a vocabulary and formula list to each of them and that wastes time better spent on solving problems together and discussing concepts.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

The politics of this well-placed Duchy are in flux, and there seems to be an obsessed madman in charge, opposed by the Horsemistresses who ride flying horses which can only be touched by women and superstition says were given to the people of Oc by the Horse God. Tense, vivid, and even better than the first book of the series. I'm looking forward to more.

I greatly enjoyed this second book of the horse mistress series.
Lark's continuing development of her skills is fun to follow.
This is an exciting adventure and I am looking forwardto the next book.

The most important commodity in the Duchy of Oc is flying horses. These marvelous winged creatures only let females ride them, refusing to allow a man near them let alone touching them. Duke William is obsessed with riding a winged horse and is developing a new breeding line that will allow men to ride them. He is so intent on bonding with a winged horse that he neglects his duty to his people.

The village of Onmarin is attacked by the barbarous Aesklanders and two of the students of the Academy Of Air witnessed the event. The duke won't avenge his people's death or try to find the two children that were taken. Horsemaster Philippa of the academy works behind the scenes to get the students back without Duke William, her sworn enemy, knowing of her plans. An academy student Larkyn finds out what William is doing and reports to Phillipa; but William brings charges against Philippa. William is growing increasingly insane and dangerous as he takes an elixir that turns his body into a female so that his first flying horse Diamond will accept him. His brother Francis is the only one who can limit his older brother's actions but his power is restricted and the duke is cunning using stealth and trickery to get his way.

Readers who read the prequel to the novel AIR BENEATH THE MOON will thoroughly enjoy reading how much Lark has matured as she learns patience and caution. The duke hates her because he believes she stole his first flying horse of his new bloodline away from him. Her concern for her mentor Horsemistress Philippa endears her to the audience who can see she cares more about her mentor and her horse than she does herself.

Harriet Klausner

The Duchy of Oc has been a safe place for many, many years. Long enough that protection isn't something that people think about, much less anticipate needing. All of that is about to change.

On a quiet day in late summer, Aesk raiders invade the fishing village of Onmarin. Many people were killed, and two children were taken. If they're lucky they will survive to be slaves. The Aesks aren't known for their kindness.

Larkyn Hamly and her friend, Hester Beeth, happened to be in Onmarin on that day. They were visiting their friend Rosellen, the stable girl from the Academy of the Air. Rosellen was killed that day, and her little sister was one of the children who was taken. Larkyn and Hester escaped. Unharmed physically, but tortured emotionally, they are determined to have something done. Young girls, especially ones who should be focused on horsemistress training, can't do much. They must hope that the council will do the right thing.

The Duke's descent into madness has grown more frightening, and more dangerous. No one and nothing is safe from him, and no one seems to have the power to stop him. More than a few people don't even see the need to try.

Mistress Winter again becomes their hope. She's not only fighting for the people of Onmarin, she's fighting to keep her job, and keep the Academy running, free from Duke William's dangerous clutches. He will try to stop her, even destroy her and Larkyn, at every possible opportunity. Mistress Winter is left, with little support, to make potentially dangerous alliances and promises.

Larkyn is nearly alone as well. She must not only keep herself and her beloved Tup, her winged horse, safe from Duke William, but she must walk a fine line to keep her family's home from being taken away.

The Duchy of Oc seems to be balancing very shakily. It's clear that something must happen, but what?

The more I read, the more involved and in love I am with these books. They are completely absorbing. The world that is created is so rich and full and real. The characters are wonderfully interesting and well-developed. I feel like I live inside this world and I know these people. This is great fantasy at work.

I'm not ready for this series to be done yet, and thankfully it isn't, but I'm not sure I ever want it to end.

Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman

I enjoyed the first book in this series. I felt that the author had some really interesting concepts behind women and the flying horses that they rode and the sacrifices they had to make for it.

But I have to say... this book didn't enthrall me.

I struggled through the first half. I even put it down for a week, before picking it back up and making myself finish it. Luckily, the book finally hit its stride about halfway in, and I was able to enjoy myself again. Unfortunaly some of the plot points that I waded through had little or nothing to do with the last half, and it seemed as if it were put there for filler.

Some things in particular that bugged me:

Lark or Larkyn or whatever the main character is called (because it changes throughout the book). It seems like nothing important ever happens without her there to witness it. I won't give away any spoilers, but the only other person who ever does anything worth while is Mistress Winters. Even then, it's usually with Lark in tow.

The main character also has dark hair and violet eyes. Yuck. Pet-peeve of mine. And it's something that could be overlooked, if the author didn't point it out so many times!

Things that were a problem in the first book just magically didn't matter in the second. Like Lark's inability to ride her horse with a saddle. This is fixed in the book, it seems, by her practicing. Whoopie. But in the first book, it seemed as if no amount of practice would help. That was a major point. Now the problem was shoved in the background and kind of tossed off as, "Oh yeah, she practiced."

The main bad guy, the Duke, is stupidly obsessed with the main character. Doesn't he have anything better to do? I mean, really. I think the part where I stopped reading the first time was when his `evil scheme' was to kill Lark's horse's dog. Wow. These bad guys sure aren't what they used to be.

The cute little urchin who had a positive interaction with Lark for all of ten seconds of course is the one that is kidnapped by barbarians. So of course, all of the good guys are up in arms over saving him and cowardly little girl that was also kidnapped. In fact, they wanted to go to full out war. A whole Duchy going to war for two children. Meanwhile the bad guys were against it, and I couldn't help but agree. There are reasons to go to war, but killing hundreds of people for the sake of two children just isn't it. Sorry. Especially since in the last book, the Duke beat several women to death.

Petra Sweet is also like a one-dimensional copy of Draco Malfoy. Just saying.

Most of these things were in the first half of the book, as I said. Once all the nonsense with the barbarians was over (and it was never even explained WHY they had gone to all of the trouble of invading Oc, or why for that matter they did it, only to kidnap two children.) the book picked up. In fact, it became rather good with all of the creepiness of he Duke coming full fledged, the plot moving along and the side characters actually becoming interesting.

So in conclusion, the second half is what makes it worth buying. I'll give it four stars for the good parts in the book, even though it really deserves three and a half. I just hope that next book doesn't require so much patience on my part to get to the good stuff.