The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Unwept (The Nightbirds, #1) Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman, 2014 New Release! I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Ellis wakes up on a train after a terrifying dream. She is sitting across from a woman with a baby, who tells her that she’s been sick, and she is going to stay with her cousin. She has no memory, only a sense that something is terribly wrong. This is one of those books where the discovery is half the joy. You, the reader, will figure out things faster than Ellis, who doesn’t have the ability to notice references and foreshadowing. I went back and forth while reading the book over which of a few possible reveals I thought it would be, and which I wanted. While I’m not 100% on board with the final reveal, I think the world could go interesting places from here. The setting, a tiny New England town, is perfectly creepy, and the build slow without losing tension. It helps that the book is rather short. ...

\ All-New X-Men Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, 2013 Premise: Henry McCoy, aka Beast, is struggling with his life, with his mutation, with recent events, with their place in history. He has a crazy idea. It involves time travel. It also involves the teenaged original X-men. Collects All-New X-Men #1-5 I had heard all sorts of good things about this title, and I'm happy to report that it lived up to my expectations. I should mention that while everything is explained, if you don’t already know what happened with Cyclops and the return of the Phoenix and A v X and Schism and the splitting of the X-men characters, this might not be the best jumping on point. This is one of those times, not all that rare in comics, when something awesome and intriguing comes out of something annoying. After A v X, parts of the X part of the Marvel Universe seemed too far gone, but give that wacky starting point to a solid writer with a good idea, and sud...

Earthly Delights (Corinna Chapman Mysteries, Book 1) Kerry Greenwood, 2007 Premise: Corinna left a life in the corporate world and the spouse who fit there to move into a building full of friendly eccentrics and open her own bakery. She has a routine, regular customers, and cats. Then an overdosing addict shows up on her doorstep, the women in her apartment building start receiving odd threats, and she meets a charming man who seems to be charmed by her. It’s all a bit much at once, but Corinna faces everything in life straight on. This is the modern-day series by the author of the Phryne Fisher books. And yes, I agree with all the folks who say that, at least in this volume, it isn’t nearly as good. The characters are fun, if often stereotypes of a sort. The setting is interesting, and the dialogue and narration is snappy. “I believe in absolutely nothing except yeast and the inevitability of politicians…” The beginning of this book was exactly what I needed when I o...