The Wolf Age by James Enge

Hooooboy. It figures my first review would be on a book I either really loved or really...didn't. And "The Wolf Age" by James Enge is set firmly in the latter camp. Actually, the surprising thing is that, after I finished reading it, I wasn't actually sure how I felt about it. I now realize that I was suffering from some residual confusion and frustration stemming from the book's conclusion (I'll come back to this). After talking it out with a friend and describing the story, however, I have come to realize that I actually really, really dislike this book.

I've never actually felt ASSAULTED by my reading before.

Lonely Werewolf Girl, by Martin Millar

Lonely Werewolf Girl, by Martin Millar.  Soft Skull Press, 2007.  560 pp.  978-0-9796636-6-6.

… in which Kalix the werewolf girl finds herself at the center of a civil war among the werewolves of Scotland.

Lonely Werewolf Girl is the story of a clan of werewolves in Scotland and England.  The Thane, leader of the werewolf clan, has died, and there is now a war of succession taking place.  At the center of the conflict is 17 year old Kalix, the daughter and youngest child of the Thane and the cause of his death.  Banished from the ancestral family home in Scotland, Kalix now wanders the streets of London, fighting her crippling depression, drug addiction, and the people who want her dead.  Also central to the story are Kalix’s brothers, Sarapen and Markus, who are fighting each other for the leadership of the clan.  Kalix’s sister, Thrix, and various cousins all choose to stand with either Sarapen or Markus, but when it becomes clear that Kalix is the key to victory in the civil war, the battle start coming to London.

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris.  Ace Books, 2011.  325 pp.  978-0-441-02031-7.

...in which Sookie witnesses a bombing, gets pulled into vampire politics, and acquires an interesting fairy artifact.

Dead Reckoning, the most recent installment in Charlaine Harris' enormously popular Sookie Stackhouse series, is an improvement on the last few books in the series, but doesn't quite measure up to the earlier books.  The book opens with Sookie working her shift at Merlotte's bar, which is firebombed by a mysterious individual.  Sookie suspects that someone supernatural is behind the attack.  Meanwhile, at home, Sookie is working on cleaning out the attic of her 150 year old house, with the help of her two fairy cousins/roommates.  While cleaning out an old desk, Sookie finds a mysterious object that was given to her grandmother by her grandfather.  As Sookie digs deeper into the mysteries surrounding her fairy ancestry, she also has to fend off attacks on her life and cope with her secretive, distracted boyfriend, Eric, who's being pulled into a nasty political affair amongst the vampires.