Silver Sensation

Silver Silence by Nalini Singh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I consider Nalini Singh a crossover artist. I generally do not like my sci-fi/fantasy to focus on romance and sex, so it's pretty amazing that I've read 26 of Nalini's books. She is that good a world-builder, and sex alone (or mate-finding) is not the focus of her stories. In the near-future alternate world of the Psy/Changeling, the Trinity Accord is the promise of lifting humans to a more level playing field after years of being the "poor cousins" to the shifters and the psychics in the power structure of the planet. Plenty of adventure and suspense to add to romance as Nalini's brilliant world-building continues and the plots of the Consortium and the wacko Architect try to break the power of the Trinity alliance. Silver Silence takes us deeper into the lives of the Mercant Psy family as Silver Mercant takes center stage and debates stepping out from Silence. We also get to explore Bear sensibilities as Silver is drawn into the protective warmth and outsize humor of the Bear changelings. It's great to immerse oneself in a world where love and inclusion win over hatred and fear. It's a message we need to hear over and over again to keep fighting the good fight in our own lives, in our own world, and I love that Nalini never loses sight of the need for fun and delight in our quest for justice and healing. She writes good plots and good people. No need for guilt, only pleasure as you can go as deep or light as you like. In other words, these are smart and sexy and Miss Em cannot resist.
(Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the early galley to review!)


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Nostalgia Rules

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Nostalgia is the emotion that colors most of the book, looking back to a time before a World War was even conceivable. There's an intersection between young folks of the upper class and the upper middle class in the bucolic English countryside. Young men and women dreaming of love and duty become caught up in the hard realities of all those "-isms," and their struggles to reconcile them echo to the present day.

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A Tale of Heart and Passion

Beartown by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It begins with a cliffhanger: "Late one evening...a teenager picked up a shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else's forehead and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there."

I read it in one sitting, for it reads like a thriller, even though it's all flashback. Backman's previous books have been wise and funny and a little tragic, but this is a masterpiece. It centers on a small town seeking glory from its hockey club. I know these kids and these families and so will you. You'll recognize "how we got here", too. Backman brings to life their hopes and dreams, frustrations and difficulties--adults and teens alike. "Beartown" should be read and discussed in every high school; it's topical and yet these events have happened for centuries. It takes place in Sweden, but could be any small town in America, too. In sports and life what we hope our children learn is to make good choices in a very un-ideal world. Fiction is a way to enter into an age-old discussion framed so beautifully by one of the characters: "This town doesn't always know the difference between right and wrong...but we know the difference between good and evil." What is the right thing to do when things go very wrong? You'll be compelled to find your answer. Backman is the Dickens of our age, and though you'll cry, your heart is safe in his hands.


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