Nevada Books

It's an unmemorable love story but lovely how she wove falcons around themes of love and death.

I was deeply touched by this small, but profound and lyrical story. Well written and developed and, it deals with the ultimate issues of life and death with sensitivity and passion.

I too was amazed this was the author's first book...and disappointed to find no others available by her.

Though "The Falconer" has been compared to "Bridges of Madison County," all it really has in common with that book is its length and the fact that it's a love story. I feel that the way it was packaged and promoted did it a disservice; it's about choices, and about taking the risk of really loving. It's about how to live your life, or my life, perhaps, because there's always something of the author in any book. I'd love to hear from readers. My website is just my first and last names dot com. Drop a line! Thanks.

This is, undoubtedly, a very profound and moving love story. What makes this different from "Bridges Over Madison County" or any number of other moving tales of love is that this one is told from the perspective of a dying woman, looking back over her very recent past. Through her pain and her drugs, she is somehow able to remember vividly some very heart warming facts about the one and only time she ever loved, and was loved in return. This is an easy read, and will leave you feeling strangely fulfilled and warm. This review refers to the hardcover edition of this story.

After letting "THE FALCONER" sit on my bookshelf collecting dust for nearly 5 years, I finally read McCarthy's short novel this past weekend and was pleasantly surprised. Filled with wonderful prose and heart-felt emotion, "THE FALCONER" pulled me in quickly and I nearly finished it within one sitting. It's like "THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY" meets "THE HORSE WHISPERER" meets "LOVE STORY" --only better. I'm just sorry that it ended after only a mear 140 pages! Try and finish this one without grabbing for the kleenex...

This book is a waste of money and I can't see anyone spending this kind of money on such a poorly written book, with such terrible photography. I read it after someone else bought it. I read their copy. Boy was he ticked to have bought a pig in a poke! He said he won't buy anything else by this author.

This author has a way of telling a ghost story that makes you carefully read each gripping page of this book cover to cover. I couldn't put this one down! Janice Oberding is an expert writer and story teller. This book is very well written and I would highly recommend it to everyone, you won't be sorry you bought it. Even if you don't believe in ghosts this book is very entertaining and rich in Nevada history, it keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next exciting ghostly tale.

My wife and I both liked this book. We like all of this writer's books. We bought everyone of her books.

This book is a fascinating look into haunted Nevada.
The updated 2nd edition is now out.

Janice Oberding has researched EXTREMELY thoroughly for this book. She is extremely knowledgeable about hauntings in Nevada.

There are many, many photographs of ghostly Nevada sites-- all of them EXCELLENT.

I look very forward to her upcoming book- Carson City's Ghosts.
She also has published Legends and Ghosts of the Lake Tahoe area-among many other Nevada haunted books.

(...)

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book.

I picked this book up at a ghost conference and got to meet the author as well. She is very nice, and extremely knowledgable on the ghosts and history of Nevada. Based on the the repeated negative reviews by one reader, Ms. Oberding has a jealous enemy with an ax to grind.
I think this is a neat little book, and does it's best to give the reader a taste of this states ghostly hangouts. I would recommend it!

Bly gives you a great story and wondeful characters. Fergus is my favorite. I have read the whole series and they are so funny and not preachy which I appreciate. Keep up the great writing!

Have you ever read a book and just were not sure what to make of it? Well...such a thought flows through your mind as you traverse with the travelers found in "Fools Gold."

The book is mixed with Christianity, humor and some silly things that just don't jive. You are thrown in the middle of the Skinner family that arrives in Goldfield amidst a raging fight between two men of the settlement. The Skinners have no desire to strike it rich in this mining town, but end up camping there as unauthorized missionaries in 1905. They were headed to California but everyone needed them in Goldfield to bring direction and light to their self-centered and self-seeking community.

O.T. Skinner becomes a hero as a "wall walker" who masterfully acquires water for his family without paying an outlandish fee which results in the whole community being indebted to him as free flowing aqua arrives for all. His wife is the concluding heroine, but you will have to read about that yourself-I won't let the famished cat out of the bag.

Some of Bly's writing is quite humorous and inventive but at times you cannot imagine the situation in logical unfolding circumstances. Most of the tale is unrealistic and you just have to get past this. You never truly feel a part of the characters lives and you wonder why such good Christian people would get so involved with silly stupid outlaws. The Bible scriptures concerning bad company corrupting good morals and not putting one's trust in man are totally ignored.

No verses are stated in the book, which is a disappointment. However, family principles and being above reproach teach the reader values of priceless gold. True gems are found in a redeemed soul not in "paydirt."

I really disliked this book. It's a fairly cliche story, and the characters have nothing particularily special about them. Pretty much, it's about the "perfect christian family" that manages to, through goodness, help make a nasty environment better. The characters are all saccharine and have no distinct personality, except for being perfect and good and unselfish. They run into all sorts of people who seem like bad people, but the family helps them anyways, and of course it all works out. An extremely predictable book with nothing special about it. It seems like stephen bly is just churning out novel after novel without really making any one novel distinct.

Circa 1905, O.T. Skinner takes his wife and 4 children on a move to Dinuba, CA where he has family and a grape farm waiting. The trip is hard, and he passes through the dusty, gambling, carousing gold rush town of Goldfield, Nevada. He plans to stay just long enough to rest his family and his mules and head right out, but water is a precious commodity and he discovers an heroic way to become the talk of the town. In the meantime, he meets two different sets of rowdy gang members, or so they seem. In addition, he pitches his tent right beside a drunken father with a starving family. The Godliness and goodness of the Skinner family is indescribable and so refreshing. Stephen Bly has me ready for book 2.

Simple, sweet story of a family who finds themselves stuck in a city bent on finding gold, no matter the cost. From characters who spout Shakespeare to bad guys bent on revenge, this is a fun ride. Underlying message of faith is not preachy, but shows that a man of faith can impact others, even a city, if he lives what he believes.

I have been a fan of CSI for about three years now and got into reading the books by Max Allan Collins in December of last year. The books follow the timeline of the television show but are understandably behind what is happening there. For instance, Killing Game is set in the time when Grissom's team had been broken up by Ecklie and Grissom was still head of the graveyard shift and had Sara, Greg and Sophia reporting to him and Catherine had become head of the swing shift and had Warrick and Nick reporting to her.

I found Killing Game to be very compelling and will just say that if you are a fan of the show, you will enjoy the read.

KILLING GAME is another enjoyable CSI story, although I found the actual plot to be a bit too predictable for my taste. However, I finished this story in a day, and was happy with the advanced character-development that this particular story held. If you enjoy CSI as much as I do, you won't be disappointed in reading these serialized novels.

I enjoyed this book - I have been reading the series in order and can't wait for the next one to come out. You don't need to read them in order, though, and if you are just starting to read them, while this one is good, I would suggest "Binding Ties" -- it's better.

Wonderful descriptions and a great plot for all those who love the show. Characters are amazingly defined and seperated by thier thoughts.

While I enjoyed it, I thought that Max Allan Collins once again put too much emphasis on his original characters. Why not use the characters (like the lab techs) that exist in the CSI universe instead of creating new ones like the computer genius he's so enamoured with?

I admire and respect Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown for their great career and contribution to architecture, which has yet to be fully assessed. The depth of their thinking, the vigilant efforts to achieve their aesthetic vision, their desire to overcome modernist dogma, which had mutated into marginalized elite uncivic abstraction, falsely denying vibrant areas of life...how can one argue with the importance and value of such work?

Let me try.

To me, this book represents one of the most interesting turning points of an architectural career, very similar to Rem Koolhaas' essay on Bigness in S,M,L,XL.

Both texts are attempting to give themselves an elite artist's alibi for co-opting the corporate machinery's unself-conscious production. Here, both artists (VRSB and OMA)attempt to escape into pop art, just like their friend Andy Warhol, thumbing his nose at the self important abstract expressionists.

There's just one problem with this; they are architects, not just artists.
And this places them in significantly different political territory. Architects build in the public sphere, and therefore have a powerful civic impact. They enable some political forces, and, by physical default, suppress others. If they were artists, their voice is a singular one, an unsponsored comment, to be entertained or dismissed. Architecture cannot be waved away.

So, being architects, is 'Learning from Las Vegas' and 'Bigness' an elite artist's manifesto, or a cynical architect's effort to solicit clients from the bloated and most lucrative areas of commerce? The ambiguity is disturbing, because ultimately it has proven out not to matter what their intention. Both Venturi and Rem Koolhaas have been most useful tools for the most egregious excesses of our runaway imperial corporate world.

And this is a sad legacy for two brilliant architectural careers. No matter what their aesthetic accomplishments in the way of rarified architectural thought, the more brutal reality is that architects seeking fame cannot also speak truth to power. This gravely undermines their civic responsibilities.
I am reminded of William Morris' quote, a sad retrospective look at his career, saying that ultimately, his work "only served the swinish luxuries of the rich." A bitter realization for a socialist, one who chose to retreat into archaic craft, instead of trendy pop.

Pop architecture is not a game. It is an insidious symptom of the polarization of wealth, a symptom that Venturi and Koolhaas cheerfully enable, both with their particular form of dissociating irony. They can play with it as a theory, but it has wrought disastrous consequences in the physical and political landscape. Same thing happened to Frank Gehry, another symptomatic starchitectural monster, who apparently doesn't need to theorize. Hard to say when the deal went down exactly. I just don't know.

this book is extremely condensed into a multitude of thumbnails or panoramas and text that never fails to reiterate its point. i mean, these two architects really understand the idea of symbols, suggestions, and sheds but after a dozen pages on one idea, you already get the point.

the images are really helpful in exemplifying the amount of criticism for or against the city ("idea") of las vegas.

Read this book to learn what you shouldn't do as an architect!

This book follows Venturi's "Complexity and Contradiction", where you can learn how cynically to use casement windows in housing for the elderly where the elderly will happily put their plastic flowers in the windows, but *you* secretly know these are not really hormal casement windows, since they are out of scale (like fascist architecture's lack of scale?).

This book will tell you about ducks and decorated sheds, but it will tell you nothing about building spaces which nourish creative human community. Try Louis Kahn (e.g., John Lobell's lovely little book "Between Silence and Light"). My postmodernist teachers at Harvard said Kahn's writings were incomprehensible, which says more about them than about him.

Read Lobell's book and learn why, e.g., a city might deserve to exist. Remember: Only *you* can get beyond postmodernism!

This is a quite unusual and offbeat treatise on architectural theory, as applied to the world's greatest architectural monstrosity - Las Vegas. This analysis from the early 1970s is obviously outdated because Las Vegas hadn't yet become the monument to megalomania and excess that it is today, but it was already well on its way. The authors analyze Vegas' unique usages of space, lighting, placement, transportation, and building design for the purposes of communication and promotion. Strange chapter titles give a clue to the left-field analysis in store, and the authors have a clear sense of irony, underhandedly implying that Vegas presents the worst in architecture while they appear to be praising its uniqueness. Unfortunately the narrative gets bogged down in dense professor-speak terminology like "Brazilianoid" and "neo-Constructivist megastructures," along with a general overload of obtuse theory. Add to that the poor-quality and under-elaborated illustrations and you have a book that sacrifices insight and readability in favor of pedantic attempts to impress the authors' colleagues. [~doomsdayer520~]

Robert Venturi's study of the Las Vegas signage phenomena and it's impact on "architecture" is brilliant in it's scope. While written almost twenty five years ago, this book gains more and more pertinence as we as a society progress further into a "reality" of symbols, reproductions and representations. These words and thoughts are basically essential to the understanding of any city anymore, not just Las Vegas. Where this book misses the mark though is in the execution, as shown in Venturi's work, of these ideas. The projects put forth seem to pale in comparison to the implications the text actually has. These notions of architecture are by far some of the most relevant and important in modern theory today, it is unfortunate that their full potential could not be realized in these projects.... but maybe that is for you and I to do.

Other reviewers have questioned the credibility of Soares as an author. I found him cocky and sure of himself, but wouldn't you have to be, to scam mobsters running casinos out of thousands of dollars? Soares justifies his cheating because these were the days when the casino was just as happy to cheat the customer if need be, before heavy gaming regulations. In fact, he started his life in the casinos as a crooked dealer, employed by the casino to bring down a player's winning streak if necessary.

The tricks described herein relate to old reel-style machines and the days when you only had to fool the casino floorpeople, not the omnipresent "eye in the sky" video camera. Some of what Soares describes in his craps games could still be employed today, but it would be awfully risky.

This is a fun read, and it might be embellished, but I enjoyed the glimpse inside a lifetime's worth of scams nonetheless.

I have to agree with David on this one. I bought the book and just finished reading it. The most of the scams wouldn't work, and about half the book has nothing to do with gambling, just some dudes uninteresting life. Total waste of my time. There are definitely better books out there.

I enjoyed this book. A very quick read. It chronicles the life of a group of professional cheats who swing the odds in their favor and reaped the winnings. Most of the action takes place in the 60's and 70's in Vegas. So much has changed in Vegas since then that I don't think these tactics would work anymore. An interesting historical account nonetheless.

I love Vegas and books about Vegas so it pains me to tell you that I truthfully hated this book. I was tempted to not even finish it, although I've never walked out on a book before.

I found the writing style to be sort of... archaic, I guess. It sounds like it was written in the 50s, or by a guy who is in his 80s (which may be the case, I don't know).

But primarily I disliked it because it simply cannot be a factual account. A few of the cheating methods he discussed are quite simply impossible. Even Madonna french-kissing Britney Spears at the craps table would not have been enough distraction to pull off what they supposedly did.

Some of the side stories were interesting, but nowhere near enough to recommend this book.

This is a really good book! I started to read it just for the content but found myself really LIKING this guy Soares. Another surprise was that he is actually a good writer. I would enjoy reading another book by John Soares. How about it John?

Overall, a fairly decent read. Though, I wouldn't pay full price for it. I got mine at a used book store. The heroine is vapid, to say the least, and is on survival automatic pilot. Jennifer exploited her good looks to become her "job" and only sought rich men to pamper her. Only when she thinks she is in trouble does she switch gears and starts her life in another direction.

The supporting characters were fairly predictable. Why, oh why, is there always a troubled teen with a younger sibling who has a drunken parent? Hedda, the teen waitress. As usual, there was no father figure in that family. That sub-plot really didn't add too much to the story except provide a venue for Jennifer's back story to come out.

I liked the last part of the story - don't worry - won't write a spoiler. By then, Jennifer learns what she really wants and thinks before she acts. A lesson she finally learned.

I liked this book. It was funny, it had some suspense, and it was nice. I have read better books though. It was too long, it just kept going on and on and on. The most funny part i think is when she goes home and dances and yanks her clothes off - not thinking of the open windows -and her neighbor (who was mowing the lawn) saw her. She finally saw him and screeched and ran into the bedroom (his jaw was dropped to see such a sight). I thought that part was hilarious - it was great. He is a good character and he is the typical boy next door (wears his heart on his sleeve)love it.

I didn't have any expectations about this book when I picked it up, but that just made it an even better surprise. The basic plot is telegraphed by the title; the surprises came from how it was fleshed out.

Sure, our heroine falls into a community of acceptance and caring too rapidly and overcomes her childhood a little more easily than is likely in real life. However, the community actually has a reality lacking in most such novels.

The characters she encounters on her flight are fully realized. As she (and we) know them better, they are flawed people who have made wrong choices but learned to get the most out of the lives they're left with.

The book doesn't demonize the villains, especially the domestic ones. And our understanding of some characters' behavior doesn't result in their miraculous repentance. We get our happy ever after, but without tying everything up into a perfect knot.

Other things I liked about this book:

The wonderful sense of place. I never heard of Boulder City, but it came alive to me.

The heroine isn't a miraculous virgin - one of those girls who date tough guys but somehow managed to have ended every evening with a peck on the cheek or a handshake - or any kind of a virgin, actually.

There's more gender equity regarding sexual behavior. Neither the hero or the heroine are diminished by his lack of and her possession of extensive sexual experience. Those books that continue some kind of 19th century view of sexual relationships have helped guarantee no survey of actual sexual behavior has a chance of accuracy. (Apparently spirit succubi or perhaps aliens from other planets really have sex with men in their sleep, since any survey of sexual partners or even marriage, finds irreconcilable differences between tallies from men and from women.)

Other of the author's books are counted as women's fiction or chick lit, but I don't believe romance novels are forbidden to have believable characters, with a realistic response to their childhoods, and heroines with 21st century sex lives.

Give this book a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, also.

Not the typical predictable story. I've gotten so I hate the mushy same-ole same-ole. It wasn't a page turner, but was a nice escape. I'll read more of Ms. Carr's books.

This was my first Robyn Carr book so I didn't know what to expect with her writing. I personally don't think Anna Nicole Smith makes a good heroine for a romance novel which is exactly who Jennifer Chaise in Runaway Mistress reminded me of in the very first chapter. Big hair, implants, aloof, spoiled and the mistress of an older man. At least Anna Nicole married the older man. Jennifer Chaise's career is being a mistress to one married man after another. In exchange for her "services", they buy her cars and houses and jewels and plastic surgery and trips around the world and yachts... All nice things, but the men are married! And she doesn't think there is anything wrong with this.

I barely got through the first chapter and by that time, I already hated her, could care less what happened to her. We are supposed to believe that she makes a complete transformation overnight and becomes this nice, caring person. Okay, fine. I kept reading. I didn't buy it because I never could warm up to her, but I kept reading. But when she told the hero about her past, a nice cop who even mows the lawns of his elderly neighbors, that "I can understand you being a little put out, but I didn't do anything wrong," I quit reading.

I believe people deserve a second chance and can turn their lives around, but first impressions are important and I could not get past my first impression of Jennifer Chaise.

Having spent my youth dreaming of boats and time on the ocean, I could not have had a more enjoyable stay with Jim Lane's landlubbing characters. The story represents the essence of the pull of the ocean, a draw that everyone seems to notice, and that many find overpowering. The translation of a phenonmenon with such simplicity, leaves the reader to embrace the concept in his or her own terms. My feeling is that this story has everything to do with the ocean, in direct contrast with the setting in the Great Salt Desert. Many of the author's writing techniques represent a style that will undoubtedly be embraced by today's newer generations of readers. Among the techniques I noticed: a willingness to express opinions about the world (and the characters in the story), references to regional events that give insights about the author and storyline, and finally, the refusal to pigeonhole this novel with a specific type of reader or age group. To any reader, (other than those offended by language used in PG-13 movies!) I would recommend this book, and say that it will give you a taste of the salty sea that you may not have appreciated before.

A friend mentioned this book to me knowing that, as I am originally from Utah, I'm always looking for stories set there. But I just don't get it - the other reviews of this book that is. I was looking forward to this one as something for both myself and my children. However, in reading it I found the prose to be flat and listless - to compare the writing to Tom Robbins is incomprehensible. The writing was trite and the story predictable. And I can, unfortunately, understand why no major publisher picked it up. It's a good idea, but the realization of that idea leaves a lot to be desired. I really wasn't interested in either the characters or whether or not they accomplished their goal, which is really a rather silly goal when you think about it anyway. I hate to start the new year this way, but maybe Mr. Lane should stick to his business in the wilds of Los Angeles instead of writing. I found this a very disappointing experience.

I am always amazed when I come across a novel with a completely original and fascinating plot that makes me wonder how the author ever thought it up. The Wendover Whale has that. I truely enjoyed the book. Aside from the plot, the characters drew me in. It is one of those books that reads so smoothly I'm surprised by how quickly I reach the end. Highly recommended, especially if you like Tom Robbins.

The Wendover Whale is a chance to remember about dreams that don't have to come true, about possibilities and how we choose to approach and subsequently handle situations that are perceived as out of the ordinary. To find the goal of the characters (building a boat in the desert) "sort of silly" as Ms. Taylor said in her review, presents the closed mind of someone who has forgotten the excitement of slipping into a slightly farfetched adventure like those in Harold and the Purple Crayon or the Elmer and the Dragon Series. I was first introduced to the Wendover Whale as a screenplay and although I preferred it in that presentation, I found the adaptation to a novel very pleasing. I do take exception to the simpler elements of copy-editing that seem to have been neglected in this printing. There are quite a few spelling errors and although it is a working part of the story to refer to the action in a cross-tense form, I found a couple of times that it read as if someone had just forgotten to transpose tenses. There are a few Robbins-esque passages that tend to ramble on in abit of a mid-hippie disjointedness, but hidden inside each of these are fine gems of insight. It can be dangerous to approach a piece of fiction with such strong preconceptions that a person can get angry at the author for not writing the book you've decided you wanted to read. Then go write it yourself! If you are not motivated, get yourself a copy of The Wendover Whale instead and embark on a wondeful journey and an entirely pleasurable read!

I think I can best reveal how I felt about The Wendover Whale, by responding to Miss Taylor's review. The only thing I found predictable about the book, was my desire that the young boy would realize his dream, and this desire provided a great deal of suspense when the dangers of failure were imminent. Miss Taylor's comment about "no major publisher picking up the book," puts a human face on the theme of the story. Here is a new writer (Mr. Lane) unable to overcome the obstacles of entering the closed world of publishing, pursuing his own convictions (or dreams) by self-publishing. I was very interested in the many well defined characters; especially the character of the young boy and his relationship to Cap, an old sea salt, and the boy and his father, as well as Cap's relationship with his very intelligent, insightful dog. I found the book meaningful and enjoyable.

When a ten year old and a four year old begin to get bored, just pull out the What to do book, leaf through a few pages and "problem solved". We really appreciate the time and effort which clearly has been put in to researching this book.

This book is a great introduction to the Tahoe area. We have a vacation house there and it's been a good resource. For in-depth information about, for example, hikes it is not the best book. Obviously, though, the authors didn't and couldn't be in-depth about all the numerous activities that Tahoe has to offer!

Odd. We were impressed with the accuracy of the information provided in the revised What Shall We Do Tomorrow at Lake Tahoe. But we read a criticism, by an unknown person writing from Soda Springs, that some information contained in the book was inaccurate. So we called the authors. The erstwhile critic had not contacted them. The common courtesy of offering "corrected" information had not been provided. Why not?

I think the best course of action would be for potential book buyers to disregard the negative comments from Mr/Ms Anonymous. Rather, use and enjoy the book for the quality publication it is.

I have only glanced quickly at this book, but I found significant errors in several of the trips outlined. Dates of open facilities, significant historic details, etc., are just plain incorrect. Since I am involved in the outdoor recreation business in this area, and the errors I found directly relate to locations I manage or are responsible for, I'm concerned that the authors never contacted myself or my staff to verify this information. If they didn't contact our office (and I operate a significant facility), who or what else did they fail to check adequately? It's a shame, because this is a great idea, but I'm sorely disappointed.

The guide book gave a broad brush overview of the Lake Tahoe area. But it didn't cover any area well enough to be very useful on our vacation. It would have been fine for a tourist who might never have been to Tahoe, but it didn't help us find the true jewels of the area. We did better driving around, reading brochures and the paper.

Having read both The Guardian and The Protector by Ms. Ruth, I can say I throughly enjoyed both stories. The Protector brings us back into the world of those who protect us against all that goes bump in the night. It is set in today's world, yet all those stories of supernatural beings that are told as myths are real. This is the second book in the series and I hope for a continuation of this world that Ms. Ruth has created. Going back and visiting old friends and meeting new ones was fun. Hopefully she will be able to to write a third story in this series where magic is just around the corner.

A horrible piece of junk. I bought this book at a Goodwill store for .25 and after reading five pages of it, I wanted to go demand my money back. I can honestly say that this is the worst book that I have ever read. I hope this author doesn't quit her day job!!

Alana is a stage magician in Vegas, but as a descendent of the queen of the fae, she uses real magic. To stay in the mortal realm, an ancestor promised to protect mortals from the Otherworld and keep their secrets. Alana is the current Protector for Las Vegas. Unfortunately, a mortal serial killer is targeting those involved in magic for death, and Alana is the next one on his list. Detective Leo O'Grady is determined not to let another die at the hands of the Claddagh killer, and a fierce attraction develops.

This book was much better than I expected. The author blends the elements of the paranormal, mystery, and romance with great skill. The characters and plot twists are very well done. I have already preordered the next book in the series.

Feel like the book is misleading - I'd rate the book cover as "R" - leading me to think it is an adult police-parannormal-romance, but the book itself is more of a PG read. Romance feels rushed - "villian" pretty evident from beginning - almost a Harlequin Romance kind of book. Not that there's anything wrong with that .....

In Las Vegas stage magician Alana Devlin performs two shows a night six nights a week. However, what makes Alana different from her performing peers is that she performs her sleight of the hand using real glamour illusions that fool human senses. Alana is the PROTECTOR keeping malevolent otherworldly creatures at bay.

In the garage after a performance, Alana bends down to pick up a gold Irish claddagh charm that someone dropped. That motion saves her life as someone tries to kill her. Using an illusion she manages to escape, but not without suffering a concussion. Police Detective Leo Grady informs Alana that a serial killer has murdered five people associated with the paranormal with her being the token survivor. He places her in protective custody, but watches Alana perform weird actions that shake his logic system to the core, but not as much as his love for the magician does to his heart.

Fans of police procedural romantic fantasies will receive plenty of pleasure from the delightfully charming THE PROTECTOR. The story line is loaded with action as the cop and the performer work together to stop a killer while falling in love. Alana is a great protagonist and her Helper Carrick Murphy is a solid secondary player who needs his own story told. Leo may be reeling with what he sees and hears, but when it comes to his beloved he refuses to accept anything except her safety. Jenifer A. Ruth effortlessly combines the three genres into a wonderful paranormal tale.

Harriet Klausner