Son of the Morning by Linda Howard

I don't remember how I stumbled across this book, but the back blurb hinted at time travel, so I went for it. It was.....okay.

I cannot lie, I skimmed a lot of this book. It had an intersting premise, Grace, a married researcher, gets involved in her work with some ancient papers and her husband and brother end up getting killed - by her boss! She goes on the run, and this is where I started skimming. She's on the run, and brought her laptop with her (she had it with her at the time of the murders), so she's continuing to research the papers while running from city to city and changing identities like underwear. It just seemed like a lot of time was focused on her fleeing from her boss, who had trained killers out looking for her.

I know the author had to get across what the papers were, and why her boss was trying to kill everyone who knew about the papers, but it was 2/3 of the way through the book before Grace finally travelled back in time. During the time between her husband's death and her travel through time, she became obsessed with and fell in love with the man in the papers, Black Niall, The Guardian. It seems she was dreaming of him and he was dreaming of her, and it seemed real to both. When she finally got into the 14th century, she was immediately kidnapped by Niall's rival, but she managed to escape and find Niall. Their romance was sort of rushed, and suddenly they were traveling into the 20th century! Then Niall was gone again! How could he leave her?! The end was a satisfying conclusion.

It was an enjoyable story, but I felt like the author could have shortened the first half and spent more time on their getting to know each other in the past. The ending just seemed to be too quick. I did like the characters, and wanted them to have a happy ending. So, I liked it, but it's not going on my keeper shelf.

The Anna Strong Series by Jeanne C. Stein

As I mentioned before, I found this series because there was a shapeshifter mentioned in the Bitten By Books shapeshifter poll, Daniel Frey. He's not really a major character, but he does play a part in the 2nd through 4th books.

I enjoyed this series, but found myself easily frustrated while reading it. Anna is a new vampire, created by accident. My frustration lies in the fact that she does not accept the guidance offered to her by other vampires. The police chief is a vampire who is trying to help her and she pushes him away at every turn. For some reason, she keeps trying to find her own answers but I feel like she's looking in the wrong places (She keeps going to shapeshifters for answers. Why wouldn't she ask vampires?!) The books mix a lot of human bad guys (her boyfriend, Max, is an undercover DEA agent and she deals with all that is associated with that) with supernatural bad buys (vampires and witches and werewolves, oh my!) and Anna certainly has her hands full trying to juggle them all. The 2nd book, Blood Drive, was my favorite; Anna discoveres she has a niece, who has gotten unwillingly mixed in with a child porn ring. The 3rd book, The Watcher, involves a homicidal stalker-type and a witch. Max discoveres that she's a vampire. The 4th book, Legacy, involves a murder and werewolves. Max is not speaking to Anna, and she discoveres him with another female vampire. I'm really pulling for her relationship with Max, although it doesn't look good. Her relationship with her partner (they're bounty hunters) is also very hot/cold. Not sure where that's going either.

So, I enjoyed the series, but will not be keeping the books. I will read the next installment in the series.

Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge

I read a lot of reviews of this book, all but one were glowing reviews. I've got to be honest, it was okay. Not great, not bad. Just okay. I'll read the next book coming out in December and see how I feel about it then.

This book was about a detective, Pete (female), who's friend, Jack, had died in a magic accident 12 years previously. She went out on a tip about a missing child, and the informant turned out to be Jack - not dead as she thought. He's a junkie, but his information is correct and she finds the child. Two more girls go missing and she needs him to find them. She gets him clean and they delve into the ugly magic underworld of London to solve this mystery.

As I said, it was okay. I liked the interaction between the characters, so I can't really say what the problem is. It could be that I just came off a great historical book and my brain is having a problem with the change. Maybe the second book will change my mind - it's happened before!