If you’ve missed the Immortals After Dark series, it’s about time you get caught up on Kresley Cole’s marvelous series featuring Lorekind folks — the ones you’ve only heard of in urban myths, for she gets better with each instalment!

In Wicked Deeds on Winter’s Night, Bowen, that reclusive, and of course wolfishly handsome, Lykae gets his come-uppance in the form of the petite dynamo Mariketa the Awaited, whose coven of witches may not approve of his wicked designs to make Mari his mate. Now, having met Bowen in the series debut, I’d been rooting for him to get over his lonesome existence and find himself a soulmate to match his stubbornness and high-handedness.

In Mari, he found a spitfire slip of a girl (she’s 23 to his several centuries … talk about cradle snatching!) who dared to stand up to him, claws, fangs and all, without compromising on her principles. Bowe has a hard internal struggle to overcome. First of all, he’s got an innate abhorrence of anything remotely resembling witchcraft or magic, he distrusted witches and was at first very resistant to the idea that Mari could be the lost half of his soul. Even when he eventually accepted and grew to like the idea of courting her for his mate, he made some stipulations about her practicing her craft, which inadvertently is stunting her personal growth and eventually led to resentment and much conflict.

My reading diet has been a little varied of late. I’ve swung from the star magic and mystery of Enchanter and Battleaxe to the desert rites of passage for would-be queen Anghara and the meddling of a ghostly poltergeist with romantic endings, and enjoyed every bit of it. 

The only one which I have some misgivings about was The Manny by Holly Peterson. Don’t be mistaken that it was badly written. On the contrary, it was hilariously funny, quirky and sexy at the same time. It’s the premise of the plot which gave me some moments of unease — the heroine, Jamie Whitfield, hired a male nanny, Peter Bailey, for her neglected and slightly depressed kid and ended up falling for the cute guy, and finally plucked up the courage to ditch the husband and say sayonara to a loveless marriage for the sake of her own, and her kids’, happiness. 

One of the greatest joys of traveling is discovering new books and authors, and hunting down books that I couldn’t locate in local stores, which is how I came to own …

The long coveted MZB masterpiece and a favourite, The Mists of Avalon, and

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, both of which were acquired during my recent stopover in Paris’s Shakespeare & Co.

Enchanter by Sara Douglass, which I reviewed in a previous post after picking it up in the bookstore in Sydney Airport enroute home from Auckland and devoured in the ten-hour flight subsequently

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, which I finally gotten hold of in transit also in Sydney

The Manny by Holly Peterson, which I picked up on transit from Bangkok and have just finished reading

Then, armed with a Borders gift card, I went on a shopping spree just two days ago and ended up with a few hauls from my wish list, namely …

While I’m struggling finish The Manny amidst school opening madness, I figured that maybe it’s good to take a break by posting this review of two of the novels from the Axis Trilogy by Sara Douglass.

Before its release in the US and Europe as The Wayfarer Redemption, Sara Douglass’ series debut was known as BattleAxe, and I found that less confusing actually, as it traces Axis SunSoar’s career as the legendary commander of the Axe wielders, an elite squad of warriors sworn to protect the Seneschal, right up to his claiming his Icarii heritage.

But I’m getting ahead of myself so let me backtrack a little here. Ms Douglass’ epic fantasy is built around a universe of three diverse and fascinating races facing an ominous evil which can only be defeated by the three races uniting under the banner of the one destined to lead them to victory. Unfortunately, centuries of prejudices, lies and treacheries have buried the truth behind the prophecy.