Night Pilgrims by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
This tale of the Count Saint-Germian is set in Egypt of 1225. It is a decade since the events of ‘Path of the Eclipse’ and Rakoczy is in Egypt living quietly near a Coptic monastery. Circumstances force him to join a pilgrim caravan.
The pilgrimage is long and difficult as the pilgrims endure weather, bandits, illness, death and intergroup tension. This was very good. Far superior to 2012’s anaemic ‘Commedia della Morte’. This is an enjoyable tale of endurance and forbidden passion.
Best Lines:
“He tried to kill me!”
“And you’re trying to kill him! Neither one of you is dead yet.”
“What happened to them I do not know.”
“Oh. This. I like this.”
~
Chain Reaction by Gillian White
From the author of ‘The Plague Stone’, ‘The Crow Biddy’, ‘Mothertime’ and ‘The Beggar Bride’ comes this 1997 tale of house moves. No-one wants to move house. Mrs Peacock is being forced into a retirement home by her hard faced daughter. Arabella is pregnant by a wastrel Prince and is being hidden away. The Middleton family are being forced out of their home by their son’s crime. The Marshes have been bankrupted due to Mrs Marsh’s shopping addiction and has been pop star Jacy has to sell his neglected mansion. The house moves soon entangle all of the characters in a bizarre chain of events involving murder, weddings and revenge. This was a good soapy story.
Best Lines:
“She would have shared her homework except nobody would want to copy such rubbish and end up with a D.”
“I’m not so sure about the name. I thought it was a lavatory spray.”
“Bitch from hell.”
“Had you forgotten about the time you hung the poor fellow over the school parapet minus his trousers?”
“Don’t talk about my mother in that sneering voice!”
“Why not, mum? You do.”
~
The House of Gaian by Anne Bishop
Book 3 of the wretched ‘Tir Alainn’ trilogy is just as bad as Books1&2. The witch-hunt in Sylvalan goes on, the Fae still refuse to help and war is waged against the witch-hunters. It’s all boring and clichéd.
Best Lines:
“You will have your Tir-Alainn - and that is all you will have. Forever.”
“As you will, so mote it be.”
“He made the world he wanted. Mother have mercy.”