A Local Habitation

By Seanan McGuire
An October Daye Novel


After a shattering fifteen years, mostly spent as a fish, Toby's life is slowly staring to reassemble itself--she's got a PI licence in the mortal world, friends , and most importantly, she is not dead. However, that last one may change, and quickly. When her liege lord Sylvester Torquill, Duke of Shadowed Hills sends her to check up on his niece, it wasn't supposed to be overly dangerous. January O'Leary is the countess of Tamed Lightening in Fremont, and hasn't been in touch with Sylvester for a while, which is unusual. Sylvester wants Toby to check on her and make sure its all right. It isn't supposed to take more than a few days, and she is to take Quentin, the Daoine Sidhe page from Shadowed Hills, so he can get some experience. However, as we all know, nothing is that simple with Toby
When Toby gets there she finds an odd place, even by Faerie standards. She also finds blocked phones, dead Faeries, and lots of secrets. The most worrying thing, even besides the killer stalking Tamed Lightening, is that when the victims die, the night haunts don't take the bodies and switch them with human-seeming replacements. (For why this is so bad, check the Glossary for a description of the night haunts and their habits.) Now Toby must find the killer, hopefully before whoever or whatever it is kills her, Quentin, Connor, Tybalt or anyone else.
Well, once again, I loved, absolutely loved this book. I always appreciate novel forms of faeries and critters, and A Local Habitation did not disappoint.  I had never heard of some of these creatures and concepts before. Seanan McGuire has created a wonderful sequel to Rosemary and Rue, with all of its predecessor's dark charm and gripping writing. I have read this entire series so far and am waiting with bated breath for the next one. If you don't like murder mysteries or dark worlds, this book may not be for you. However, if you don't mind a little violence, dark humor, and some creepy characters, this series can be funny, enthralling, and absolutely addictive.

Kitty Kitty

By Michele Jaffe

Sequel to Bad Kitty



Jas Callihan is once again trying to be a Model Daughter. Remember the LAST time she tried that? Yep, nothing good can come of this. This is how it came about.
Apparently, after the whole Las Vegas episode (you know, the whole almost-getting-killed thing?), her dad (who has recently upgraded his super-villain persona in Jas's head from the Thwarter to Dadzilla, snacking on her dreams rather than just thwarting them) didn't like the idea of her roaming around LA, and decided to move. To Venice, Italy. The day before her senior year of high school started. Which is so totally unfair. I mean, she DIDN'T get killed that time, and the police departments of two states had THANKED her,  and it TOTALLY wasn't her fault, and her friends and her boyfriend are all STILL IN LA!!
So, Jas figures, if they moved because she got into the TINIEST little bit of trouble, if she proved she could stay OUT of trouble, they could go home. Simple, right? Not for Jasmine Callihan, trouble magnet and crime scene just waiting to happen!
Instead, several very strange and worrying things happen: Her only friend in Venice, Arabella, says someone is following her and is going to kill her, the Evil Hench Twins Alyson and Veronique show up and ask to be called by their faerie names, and Jas decides to turn into Bad Jas, who later breaks off into a separate personality inside Jas's head. After she informs her friends of this fact and also refuses to stop associating with Arabella (like Polly told her to), her friends..... can you guess what they do? FLY TO VENICE FOR AN INTERVENTION INVOLVING MIND CONTROL GOGGLES, JAS'S DELTA WAVES, AND TEDDY GRAHAMS!! THAT'S WHAT THEY DO!! Oh, and by that point Arabella has been murdered, but the police think it's suicide and refuse to help. Read the book to find out about the soul-stealing glass kitty, Mutant Ninja Turtles, water wings, pizza, goldfish, and fully weaponized, mangy squirrel costume. Oh, and the Hench Twins latest Crimes Against Fashion.
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD BOOK! As with the previous book, hysterically funny, well written, and super cool! SO FUNNY! Jas's friends are nuts, but considering how often she gets into really weird trouble, that's probably a good thing.

Bad Kitty

By Michelle Jaffe

All Jasmine Callihan wants to do on her family vacation in Las Vegas is relax by the pool, avoid her cousin Alyson and Alyson's Evil Hench Twin, Veronique, work on her Meaningful Reflections journal and Little Life Lessons for school, and maybe meet the cute guy Jas has been eyeing from across the pool. Is that really so much to ask? Apparently yes. After wreaking a wedding and subsequently getting out of trouble and being given a limo, Jas decides to become a Model Daughter. This causes her friends Polly, Roxy, and Tom to come to Vegas to "deprogram" her using magazines and dog collar restraints. Yes, I mean that. Yes, dog collar restraints, as in real dog collars to be used as restraints. Dog collars with rhinestones. No, her friends never used them. Yes, her friends are nuts, wacko, and insane, except maybe Tom. Before they get there, though, Jas meets Jack (the guy from across the pool), discovers that he is (probably) evil, receives a threatening note, steals a limo by accident, and bids Model Daughter Jas goodbye, thereby eliminating the necessity of reprogramming. Soon Jas and her friends are embroiled in a mystery involving murder, possible murder, theft,  and an orange cat. And it's all the cats' fault. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this book, which frequently has both me and my sister rolling on the floor laughing. Hilarious! Everyone in it is completely insane, though. Oh, wait, that's a good thing. At least from my point of view. LOVE JAS LOVE POLLY LOVE ROXY LOVE TOM! Much purring.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

By Laurie R. King

A Mary Russel Mystery

Walking the Sussex Downs and reading, fifteen year old Mary Russell litterally trips over the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is now retired, keeps bees, and takes a few particularly interesting cases now and then. The ageing, eccentric detective and the smart, half American teenager become friends and  Holmes teaches Russell the art of detection. She assists him with a few cases, his "apprentice". When an unknown enemy of Holmes' decides to kill both Holmes and Russell, they soon find themselves in a fight for their lives. I love this book and this series, and don't have much hope of really capturing it here. I've done my best but because of that, this review will probably be revised more than once. I love stories about Holmes, and this series is one of the best that I've read. The author really captured Holmes wonderfully. Muy bien. Very good.

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator

By Jennifer Allison

When thirteen-year-old Gilda Joyce accidentaly tells her entire class that she is going to San Francisco during summer break (she's not) she decides it is the perfect time to visit her distant cousin Lester Splinter and his daughter Juliet. She then wangles an invitation and heads off  to San Francisco. When she gets there she dicovers that there is a ghost in the tower on the back of the old house. Juliet believes it is the ghost of her aunt who commited suicide several years ago. Gilda, who considers herself a psychic investigator, believes her and sets out to find out why the ghost is there and what made her commit suicide. I LOVE Gilda, who enjoyes wearing wigs and wacky disguises, always carries a copy of the Master Psychic's Handbook, and frequently askes sudden probing and personal questions. She also travels with a typewriter on which she writes stories, progress reports on her latest case, and letters to her dead father. Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator is a great book, and anyone who likes slightly creepy mysteries with funny, zany, main characters should read it.