What a good week this has been!

I've had three books that I've been excited about this week. The first was "Blackout" by Connie Willis. I've read her other titles about time travel and this one was fantastic. I'm almost sorry to tell people that it involves time travel because they tend to get glassy eyed and impatient but this was such a wonderful book I want to smack them alongside the head and say "Get over yourself and give this book a chance." This one is set during World War II Great Britain and is really about how the ordinary people got along in the midst of daily turmoil and nightly bombings - all before the United States got involved. The whole Dunkirk rescue by just about anyone with a boat, the people who made due in London with the underground stations serving as bomb shelters and the country people who took in the children evacuated from London - including two of the most annoying, bratty children who still managed to tug at my heart strings.The only thing that was dismaying was to get to the end of this huge book and discover that we have to wait until the next book to find out how everyone's problems turn out!!

I've loved Liz Williams' books involving Detective Inspector Chen that are set in Shanghai Three where everyone is now getting used to demons and gods and magic. Chen's partner, the demon, Zhu Irzh, and the badger familiar of Chen's wife, Inari, who is also a demon, have been taken hostage in a strange jungle hell. Meanwhile, Chen is dealing with a Bollywood actress who is a tiger demon and on a killing spree. Mhara, the new Lord of Heaven, is being stalked by an assassin hired by his mother - oh, things get really exciting in these books. Beings die - sort of and there is lots of action and quite a bit of humor. Terrific book.

Lastly, I savored the newest book from Lorna Freeman. I thought for a while that we were never going to have another book about Lord Rabbit and the Borderlands but finally the publisher, ROC, came through. Rabbit is still trying to learn about his various gifts of magic and still reeling from the rebellion that he helped put down when one of the lords of the land demand that he marry his daughter since Rabbit's mother had jilted him to run away with Rabbit's dad. King Jusson takes his royal entourage off to Mearden for a diplomatic mission and to assess the situation with the demands for Rabbit's marriage. Wow, does the shit hit the fan. The entire House of Mearden seems to be full of intrigue and cranky people. There is the daughter of Captain Suiden who has arrived with a war wizard, the wolf, Kveta, who Rabbit knew from his home in the Borderlands and a strange "Watcher" of the local forest. Oh, I want to read this book again and savor all of the bits I missed because I wanted to see what would happen next. Please, please, let there be more.