Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 6 The Stubborn Advocate/ Michael Anderle & Sarah Noffke / 282 pages

Liv is a Warrior of the House of Seven after the mysterious deaths of her parents and older siblings and she is charged to uphold justice in the magical world by the Council of Seven. Things are not as they should be, Liv and her friend Rory the Giant have been looking into what is wrong in the magical world, they discovered everyone is missing memories of a war that happened between magicals and humans, and there is something making humans forget about magic when they were originally part of, the House of Seven that used to be the House of Fourteen. Without  humans in the House, the Council has been unbalanced without an outside perspective. But how is it possible that everyone's memories of that event are missing and how come humans can’t see magic, perhaps there are answers on the mountain where her parents died? Adler, a member of the Council who hates Liv and who Liv and her family think might be behind or helping the one responsible for the changes in the House, the one who caused humans to forget about magic, and perhaps even responsible for her parents and siblings deaths, brings back an ancient evil to distract Liv and prevent her from finding out the truth.  As she digs deeper and takes on her missions, Liv must be even more careful or else she might end up like her parents and siblings. Narrated by Dara Rosenberg 5h 33min. 

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 5 The Loyal Friend / Michael Anderle & Sarah Noffke / 314 pages

Book five in the Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series.  Liv Beaufont is a Warrior of the House of Seven since taking over the position after her parents and older siblings mysterious deaths and she is charged to uphold justice in the supernatural world by the Council of Seven.  However things are not as they seem, the Council seem more concerned with their laws than doing what is right. She and her friend Rory the Giant have been looking into what is fundamentally wrong with the supernatural world and discovered that it seems that all species are missing memories of a war that happened  between magicals and humans and there is something making humans forget about magic when they were originally part of, not the House of Seven but the House of Fourteen. That is what’s wrong in the House, it is unbalanced since there are no longer any humans with an outside perspective to help keep the balance, it was never meant to be just magicians on the Council.  But how is it possible that everybody's memories of that event are gone? On Liv’s latest mission for the council she is sent to Romania to find out who all the members of a werewolf pack are and deal with them, since tourists in the area have been going missing and the Council suspects the wolves of eating humans. However since wolves can sense magic the Council decides to bind her magic so that they won’t be able to tell she is a magician and think her human.  Liv knows that certain members of the Council suggested this because they want her dead, after all she’ll be defenseless in the werewolf town without her magic. As she digs deeper for the truth and takes on her missions, she must be extra careful. Narrated by Dara Rosenberg 6h 44min. 

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 4 The Triumphant Daughter / Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle / 312 pages

Liv Beaufont is a Warrior of the House of Seven ever since taking over the position after her parents and older siblings died and she is charged to uphold justice in the supernatural world by the Council of Seven.  However things are not as they seem, the council seem more concerned with their laws than doing what is right. She and her friend Rory the Giant have been looking into what is fundamentally wrong with the supernatural world and discovered that it seems all species are missing memories of a war that happened a while ago.  But how is it possible that everybody's memories of that event are gone? On top of that Liv’s latest mission from the council is hunting demons and she is trying to help another Warrior who has been infected by a demon without the council finding out. If she doesn’t find the demon and get it’s blood to create a cure for the Warrior, he will become a demon.  Then there is the mission to the Giants’ Isle that she volunteered for to prevent another Warrior from going and finding out that the Giant Sword she stole from a museum, because it belonged to her friend Rory’s family, is there on the Isle. The mission happens once every 100 years, the council is obligated to send someone to offer the giants a place in the treaty they have with all other magical creatures besides demons, however the giants hate mages and normally kill those that go. As she digs deeper for the truth and takes on her missions, she must be extra careful. Narrated by Dara Rosenberg 6h 51min.

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 3 The Defiant Magician / Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle / 322 pages

Liv Beaufont is a Warrior of the House of Seven, charged with bringing justice, set by magicians in the magical society and imposed upon on all magical creatures.  Where the other Warriors do as they are told by the Seven Councilors Liv is more set about doing what is right instead of what is easy. The Council used to send her on wild-goose chases for stupid cases just to keep her busy, but now they are sending her on more and more dangerous cases and she and her brother Clark, one of the Seven Councilors, think that someone on the Council is trying to get rid of her as she works with her brother secretly so they don’t target him too, to find out more about the mysterious deaths of their parents, brother, and sister.  Liv is determined to prove that she’s a capable and strong Warrior and try to decode the mysterious message left to her and Clark by their sister as well as the ancient language of the Founders and the mysterious hidden door in the Library of the House of Seven. Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg 6 h 55 min.

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 2 The Uncooperative Warrior / Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle / 302 pages

Oliva "Liv" Beaufont has been getting used to her new position as Warrior of one of the Seven as well as having her magic unlocked.  The Council has been assigning her stupid cases to keep her busy and out of the way. However she’s been working her own cases trying to find out more about her parents, older brother, and sister’s deaths and the secrets that are going on inside the House of Seven.  Her friend, the giant who has been helping her train her magic, asks her for help recovering his grandfather’s sword which is in a public museum guarded by magic wards that make it so he can’t take it. She gets a lead on the magic container she found during a case and then someone stole from the House of Seven, and she thinks it was someone from the House. Liv makes friends with a bunch of Brownies that like to clean places, her boss human John at her electronic repair shop job is getting suspicious of her activities and Liv strikes up an unlikely partnership with an annoying Elf.  Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg 6 h 36 min.

Changes / Jim Butcher / 438 p.

Not just Changes but BIG changes in this 12th book of the Dresden Files series. This book is filled with people from Harry's past as well as family secrets, betrayal, friends willing lay down their lives and the overriding need for our heroic wizard Harry to save a child from the Red Court--a VERY special child. Of course, Harry makes those nasty vampires pay. It's my favorite Dreseden book so far.  I "read" the book by listening to the audio version. As I have already mentioned in previous reviews it is not just the story but the fabulous narration of James Marsden that brings the story to life. And what an ending! 

Turn Coat / Jim Butcher / 420 p.

Jim Butcher keeps getting better and better. I love how all of the characters develop and grow. Harry Dresden is so heroic while at the same time flawed and funny and surrounded by loyal allies. This time Morgan, the warden who has eagerly awaited the day he could catch Harry doing something against the laws of magic and kill him, actually has to come to Harry for help when he is accused of the murder of a leader of the White Council.  And, as often happens, there are dire consequences to those around Harry. Friends die in battle; Thomas--Harry's half-brother--is brutalized. But while Harry is able to prevent the worst from happening, things continue to march toward a showdown between the forces of good and evil.

As usual, James Marsters brings them to life with his masterful reading.

Night Circus / Erin Morgenstern 387 p. ALA Rusa Reading List - Best Adult Genre Fiction Award

“The circus arrives without warning.

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

But it is not open for business. Not just yet.”So the reader is pulled into the magical world of Le Cirque des Rêves. Set in the Victorian era, a love story emerges between two competitors in a game of illusions. Each is fabulous at creating magical images. The competition turns to collaboration as each builds on the other’s work—and the circus expands. Great delightful tents appear—an ice garden that never melts, a living carousel, as each seeks to pleasure the other. The wonderful spell-bounding concoctions of Celia and Marco grow and grow. But like a garden, need their attention to stay and bloom. The dark secret is not revealed to Marco or Celia that the game ends when only one person is left standing. What will happen to the two lovers?

Many other characters emerge—Bailey, a Massachusetts farm boy who chums with the clairvoyant twins, Frederick Thiessen, clock maker extraordinaire, and Chandresh Christophe Lêfevre, the organizer behind the circus.

Slowly, practically imperceptibly, the world changes, pieces fall, the fanciful places begin to fail. The lives of everyone are at stake.

The reader is immerged in such lush and lavish descriptions that swirl around that one may miss important details. This work would benefit from being read a second time just to see how all the parts intertwine.

This feels somewhat like Harry Potter in that the author creates another world where perhaps things in the circus tents are not are they seem-- paper birds that fly, charms, and magic. The magicians work to make the illusions explainable in the Victorian world where it takes place. So that when the magician conjures impossible things, the circus audience willing accepts the show as being an illusion.


2012 ALA Best Adult Genre Fiction