Murder Most Romantic is Cumberland Houses's latest edition of its "Murder Most..." series., including Murder Most Medieval, Murder Most Delectable, etc. The idea behind each anthology is to combine previously published works under one volume to create the "ultimate" murder mystery collection for avid fans. Martin Greenberg, a/k/a Mr. Anthology, is President of TEKNO Books in Green Bay. His partner in this series, Dennis Little, is an authority on romance writing.

Combining romance and mystery is a little like serving chili and potato soup together; each genre serves up a hearty meal for fans. But the mix proves to be unexpectedly enjoyable for the reader, as the romances involved do not always focus on the strict regimen of "getting the dream man in the end." Indeed, Laura Resnick's "Homicidal Honeymoon" opens with a woman who has temporary lost her memory and identity waking up with a corpse in her bed:

"She developed a theory. 'Someone hit me over the head and killed him...' But who? And why? And what should she do now? Trying to ignore her aching head, she wrapped a threadbare towel around herself, turned, and went out onto the balcony. Her room, she discovered, was on the second floor of a grubby pale building in a rundown semi-urban street."

There are a few stories about theater, including P.N. Elrod's "The Scottish Ploy" and Neesa Hart's "The Show Must Go On." For computer heads there is a virtual reality computer story entitled "Twelve Days," by Laura Hayden ... by Diane A.S. Stuckart. A wonderful ghost story entitled "Keeper of the Well" by Deb Stover brings tears with its sweetness. "Hostage to Love" by Mary Watson appeals to today's headlines.

All in all, Cumberland House has done a nice job of compiling a variety of mysteries where love plays a central role. These stories are well written, entertaining, and keeps the reader so interested that one story naturally flows into the other. This reviewer sat up late finishing the book so as not to miss a scary love morsel...

This book was hot, hot, hot. There were scenes that could have made candles melt.

If you ever have loved and lost this book will show you that maybe you should give it a second chance.

I have browsed a copy of this book in an animation gallery and was impressed by the work within - certainly a marvellous way to explore the drawings that make up these films.

Let's hope Disney continue this series and quickly release Glen Keane's awesome character sketches and pencil development from 'Beauty and the Beast'! That is what I'm *really* waiting for!

Bambi is a nice drama of real life. It states how life goes. It shows that sometimes you have to go on without your parents that they wont always be there. It also states that your friends & loved one's can be there to lean on & help you get on your feet again. If you're looking for a good book to explain life to kids then this is it. It is a good book to start conversations about life to little kids as well.

This fine addition to the Disney Sketchbook series has many of the wonderful sketches done by Disney's animation department for Bambi, including many pieces from the storyboards, and several sketches of scenes that never made it into the final film. Artists that would like to study the Disney style of drawing and animation should find this volume a terrific addition to their collection despite its rather high price. As a student of art, and a fan of the Disney style, I highly recommend any of these books for your library.

Good - excellent story content, indifferent copyediting.

Braunbeck, Gary: The narrator had never seen "The Fields, the Sky" until Theseus, leaving him for dead in the Labyrinth, failed to re-seal the secret entrance after his own escape. This interpretation of the Minotaur is more complex than the typical man-with-bull's-head. Imprisoned from birth for sins not his own, rejecting the gods whose erratic compassion failed to succor him, his bitter loneliness as the only one of his kind between the fields and the sky leads him to seek worship, however pathetic.

Edghill, India: "A Phoenix Too Frequent", as the one creature created to evade the rule that all things must die in their season, finds that immortality carries its own punishment.

Edghill, Rosemary: Despite his noted tightfistedness, after a particularly rich haul the raider Fadring makes "A Gift of Two Gray Horses" to the old woman and boy of Owl Farm, living in lonely poverty at the edge of human settlement. A cruel gift - they can barely keep their goats alive, let alone horses. Only one thing isn't explained by Fadring's cruelty: his fear...

Elrod, P.N.: Ellen's cardboard villain ex seeks to take away her one financial support - her tea room - while hiding his own assets, adding insult to injury with a smear campaign. However, one of her customers knows enough magic to call up "The Tea Room Beasts" - a matched quartet of elemental spirits who can achieve some 'balance' for Ellen. (Elrod pays lip service to the threefold rule of magical consequences only long enough to brush it aside, on the theory that Ellen's former pain can offset HUGE payback.)

Hightshoe, Carol: The narrator, an immortal werewolf whose curse drove him to despair long ago, has come to sing his "Midnight Song" at his wife's grave.

Jocks, Von: "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Unicorn", embodying an ideal. The story revolves around The Maiden and the Unicorn, an independent shop in a small mall protected by a *real* unicorn, whom few have eyes to see. The 3rd person viewpoint switches between the unicorn, on maiden patrol (e.g., petty thieves have a rough life here), and the two shop assistants, on the day their boss deals with yet another attempted buyout. *Not* sappy.

Luzier, Pamela: "The Dragon and the Maiden" Wenda saved herself for marriage, hoping to better her lot. Unfortunately, the knight who looked so promising turns out to have a jealous fiancee, so Wenda is left as an offering for the dragon who has just settled into the neighbourhood. But he, as it happens, is an exile from China. "I don't eat humans. What kind of people are you, anyway?"

Nye, Jody Lynn: "Father Noe's Bestiary" is his collection of *very* realistic monster paintings. He says he's a priest who turned wizard in the Middle Ages, and calls himself the first conservationist. The neighbourhood thinks he's a holy man, and crazy, and watches out for him. See also "Through the Needle's Eye" in Norton's _High Sorcery_.

Rabe, Jean: "In Quest of the Beast" A young SCA enthusiast and budding medieval scholar, being also an underfunded undergrad, finds herself pursued by Pellinore's Questing Beast - and *not* TH White's warm/fuzzy version.

Rodgers, Alan: When Cab Callolee, wandering storyteller, saw the hunting party returning with the corpse of a unicorn, he was shocked to the core that the prince plans to dine on "Unicorn Stew".

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: "Destiny" The flip side of the opening incident from _The Fey: The Sacrifice_. The magical Fey, despite the name, are mortal; their king wants to rule as much of the world as possible before he dies. Newly-conquered Nye still hasn't grasped the situation; their unwariness around animals, particularly cats, gave Solanda, with her shapeshifter abilities, a tremendous advantage as a pampered pet by day and a deliverer of intelligence reports by night. In the peaceful post-conquest occupation, she finds that her feelings for the Nye family who don't know the truth about their "pet" are more complex than a desire for creature comforts.

Schmidt, Dennis A.: "A Nessy Mess" As in Hawke's _Wizard of 4th Street_ series, catastrophe has ushered magic into the world. The narrator's a former history professor turned free-lance wizard with a smart-aleck Rottweiler familiar. Their current job is to remove a Ness monster from Central Park's lake.

Sherman, Josepha: "Nothin' But a Hound Dog" Setting = urban fantasy, a la Lackey's _Knight of Ghosts and Shadows_. The narrator, a story-teller, adopts a scruffy green-eyed mutt who follows her home, to discover a white coat and red ears under all that dirt. But he seems to be just a very bright mutt...

Sizemore, Susan: "Coming to America" When Aril's father says he may be a changeling, he doesn't mean what you might expect. Aril's family are themselves of the Fair Folk, having emigrated from Ireland with a family who supplied the belief they needed. They're barely hanging on; only the mortals' eldest grandmother survived to reach the late 19th-century tenements of New York, and the American Dream has displaced other immigrants' old beliefs. But Aril has one mortal friend who believes in him enough to *see* him, although young Adolph doesn't know what he is. Through him, Aril's family may find a new way to survive in the New World. (Hint: If you don't recognize Adolph by the ending of the story, he changed his first name in 1938, and his given name was never his best known sobriquet anyhow.) :)

West, Michelle:"The Last Flight" A grandfather, who is much more than the ordinary mortal he seems, spends his last evening with his granddaughter in the park where he met her grandmother.

CREATURE FANTASTIC is an excellent mix of stories about mystical creatures, both the standard (dragons, unicorns, phoenixes) and some you aren't as likely to see elsewhere (the Questing Beast, for example, and a fairy dog). True; I'm biased--my story, "Yes, Virginia, there IS a Unicorn," allowed me to have some fun with the blitz of unicorn products out there and still, I hope, keep the ideal alive. But I thoroughly enjoyed the other stories in the anthology as well. Another "Fantastic" book!

Forget those mighty wizards and unbeatable sorceresses, and ignore those Hobbits and Orks all of whom magically make the fantasy genre what it is. Instead this anthology concentrates on the mythological and the mundane animal kingdom that enables fantasy writers to make their worlds seem real. The stories are wonderful and quite surprising yet each one bewitches the reader. The tales include a trip to the mall to find unicorns, listen to a Kierkegaard quoting a familiar, an endangered species candidate - dragons not protected by the EPA, a Phoenix sick of the life and death cycle, and even cats and dogs. Regardless of the creature each tale is fantastic, as genre fans will agree that Yes, Virginia, there is animal magic in this collection.

Harriet Klausner

Started out great and went along fast paced until the arrival in Viking Territory. Then it went downhill. The plot seemed contrived and I knew what was going to happen before it happened. After awhile I got tired of it and felt like tossing the book.
How many times can one person be saved from certain death? I mean, come on already. Some of the plot and scenes were too far fetched even for me. More than halfway through the book, neither one can speak the other's language, so there is no worthwhile dialog between the main characters, just an interpeter. They fall in love too quickly and the heroine, Fiona, is too quick to make major life changing decisions.
The villain is very typical. All in all, I hate to say, I was unimpressed with this at-first promising book.

The daughter of an Irish chieftian has found a way of keeping out of a marriage she does not want. Her decision(this is what I mean about life changing and too quick) is to let the Viking prisoner in her father's dungeon ravish her. Ruined, she will be unacceptable for marriage. But when the Viking refuses her, she is desperate.

Delirious with fever and festering wound, Dag Thorsson thinks the woman coming to seduce him is a dreaded fairy. He must resist her charms. But after he resists he realizes she is human. Escaping his imprisonment unexpectedly, Dag captures the beautiful princess and takes her with him home.
Suddenly trapped in a rugged land with nowhere to go, Fiona becomes desperate to escape. Treachey abound and she can trust no one....except Dag, her captor. Can love save them both from certain death?

Tracy Talley~@

I am very fond of viking romance and found this one to be sensually gripping. The story of a viking wounded in a raid and the irish princess that nurses him back to health. Dag decides to keep Fiona and take her with him back to his village (against her will). I found this to be very different from all the other viking stories I have read because Dag cared for Fiona right from the start and was a very sweet and sensual man. I found this to be a refreshing change of pace compared to the lusty, domineering barbarians I usually read about. This book is well worth your time.

Gillgannon knows how to develop a story and maintain it without the reader ever losing interest. Fiona & Dag are characters you will remember long after you've read the last page and placed this book on your "keepers" shelf. They have a wonderful chemistry and a genuine love story.

Braunbeck, Gary A.: "Modoc Rising" The narrator's friendship with his 27-year-old nephew Carson is cemented by a shared love of comics. But Carson lately has turned up with _MODOC: Land of the First Beast_, which seems to be giving him messages from elsewhere. Then as mass die-offs of many animal species strike worldwide, the Down's-syndrome-afflicted Carson goes missing...

Elrod, P.N.: "Dog Spelled Backward" Sasha (who with Megan, her sister, is a terrier/miniature-Doberman cross) knew she'd inherit Mighty Mite's pack leader role when the elderly Pomeranian abandoned her arthritic body. But none of the 3 realized how much their human "mom" would grieve, being unable to perceive the Mite's spirit. The *dogs* have the out-of-body experiences and so on, not the human; they protect her from Otherside vampiric things that would feed on her misery - things that take squirrel-shape. :)

Gilman, Laura Anne: The unnamed narrator gives a "Catseye" view of the abuser married to a lady with a healer's touch. 'He thought she was alone. That was his worst mistake.'

Helfers, John: Sevronai and his apprentice have had hard times, as the aging Sevronai's control over his spellcasting has deteriorated (rain spells that won't stop, for instance). When "Thieves in the Night" - a pack of little forstchen - steal the last of the travellers' food, Sevronai gives chase only to be caught by their master, a hedge-wizard who tired of his role as wildlife-protector.

Jocks, Von: (The title of "This Dog Watched" is taken from an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem about her dog.) The narrator consults a psychic about his English Lit problems - who says 'no WAY' as soon as she consults her crystal ball. Madame Eglantine says he has issues from a life as a *dog* - but there are technical problems with past-life regression to something that can't talk.

McCay, Bill: "Alliance" Setting: Egypt (but not that of McCay's StarGate novels; see also _A Constellation of Cats_). Tanit, village healer, finds it odd that only young children are afflicted with fever, and that the new deity establishing a cult in the area should declare cats anathema. Narrative alternates between Tanit and Bast, a stray whose feline senses give her a different perspective on the problem.

Norton, Andre: "The Familiar" From Fossi the familiar's point of view, who has been passing as a child's toy handed down from mother to daughter for generations - and who considers the current human charge, Jeseca [sic] to be the familiar. Fossi, unfortunately, has lazily waiting for Jeseca to grow up a little before trying to educate her; now they may both pay, as they flee enemy soldiers invading their native city.

Nye, Jody Lynn: "And So, Ad Infinitum" Mira is a weekend witch: a middle-aged mom whose 'pet' cat Zoomer doubles as her familiar. Zoomer seems pretty normal - obsessed with his favourite food, testing mattresses, acquiring fleas. However, he's good at his job, and she wouldn't dream of trying to contact great-aunt Violet on the other side to complete her family history without him.

Rabe, Jean: "On the Scent of the Witch" John Bradstreet is the only *real* witch in Massachusetts, let alone Salem. Against the modern trend of witches in fiction, he's actually guilty of many of the evils Cotton Mather attributes to witches - playing with others' lives for fun and profit, using his elderly dog to manipulate children with an eye to future immortality. Good characterization; he doesn't see himself as evil, but isn't about to put his neck on the line to save those falsely accused of his crimes.

Resnick, Laura: "First Familiars" - a series of memos between Socks the Cat and his infernal masters; he just can't make headway with the Clintons. Then Socks receives a *dog* as backup. (Socks complains to his union rep.) He even tangles with the IRS ("your threat to send me back to the Fifth Circle for my failure to file a tax return while I was *there* for 180 years is so depraved that even the Dark Powers are impressed.")

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: Winston, a timid, underpowered wizard, is "Searching for the Familiar" after his cat falls victim to a rash of familiar-kidnappings. His advantage is that one of his friends is a cop, who needs no magic to investigate kidnappings.

Sherman, Josepha: "Swordplay" Marko, as his father's second - and second-best - son, has been nicknamed 'Luckless' so long he believes it, but he's determined to tackle the dragon who crippled his father and killed his older brother. In a fit of self-pitying sarcasm, he 'conjures' a spirit into his sword - Stacie, a Valley-girl who simultaneously cast her own 'spell'. She'll cooperate, but has her own opinions to contribute.

Sizemore, Susan: "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It" Told in an unusual style: all dialogue, without even 'he said/she said', and only 4 characters: Marcie and Kim opening their new phone-psychic business, an undercover cop seeking a missing person, and Mae - who hadn't known until she first saw a mirror that this time she'd reincarnated as a ratlike Chihuahua rather than a white Persian. :)

Stuckart, Diane A.S.: "Business as Usual" Jane Riverspoon is no magician, even as a saleswoman, having inherited a corner office from the late unlamented Tiffany Glass only under a lottery system. Nevertheless, a rat shows up to act as her mentor: the reincarnated Tiffany, required to compensate for not having helped others in life. (Tiffany, far from being remorseful, resents the situation, and Jane's phobic about rats.)

West, Michelle: "Legacy" occupies a full quarter of the book. Callie unexpectedly gains a familiar during a weird glitch in a online role-playing game in this near-future: a tiny dragon, apparently the same helper program that once served as familiar to one of the system's founders. ('Legacy' here has several senses, including the computer sense, as the game progresses on many levels.)

Based on the most unscientific survey, most readers within a mean plus or minus three standard deviations will state unequivocally that a familiar is a magical cat that is a companion to a witch. Obviously tales like Bell, Book, and Candle conjure up felines as companions to the Kim Novaks of the world. However, the fifteen contributors to this anthology demonstrate a wider girth of sidekicks to include the expected cats (including former White House resident Socks), dogs (feels at first like heresy, but it works), people (not just husbands), and insects (don't ask). Each tale as far as this reviewer understands is new, but what this reader knows is that each contribution is well written, remains within the theme, and provides fans with a powerful witch's brew anthology. Now let me take a closer look at my menagerie (dogs and cats not my spouse silly) who obviously have bewitched me as they can do no wrong (that's how one perceives exclusion of the husband).

Harriet Klausner

This was a terrific fantasy anthology all about dreaming. Most of the stories are 4+ or better with only a dud or two. I bought this one because of the stories by Josepha Sherman & Susan Sizemore but ended up enjoying many of the other authors too.

What can a dream mean and is there ever any truth to it? This book will make you think.

Disney Mouseworks seems to be moving to smaller books and it looks like the end of the line of the Disney Classics series. The new Read-Aloud Storybooks are shorter (by about 20 pages) and smaller (by an inch here and there). That's too bad for those of us who have been collecting the old series. The paper is nicer and the artwork is very good, though, so it's not a total loss.

The Edgar Rice Burroughs books are full of suspense, a perfect bedtime story. The best thing is that many (if not all of them) can be downloaded from from Project Gutenberg. Try reading the first one, Tarzan of the Apes, to your child as a serial bedtime story. They'll be begging to go to bed.

This version of Disney's Tarzan is clearly written and has accurate drawings true to the film's content. Rarely do you find a smaler version of the big books so well presented.

Junie B. Jones is very excited to hear that her parents have a big surprise for her. She envisions wonderful gifts and presents that she may receive. She is horribly shocked to hear that her big surprise is a baby coming!! She does not have a positive attitude about this baby coming. She calls the nursery the dumb baby's room. The big day finally comes when mother has the baby. She enjoys having her grandparents all to herself. Grandmother says the baby is so cute, but her description doesn't sound so cute to Junie B. Junie has a difficult time dealing with this baby and gets into some trouble at school as usual. In the end, Junie B. begins to accept the baby and says that he's the most cutest little monkey she's ever seen.
My kindergarten and first grade students enjoy these books very much. These books are the ones that spark the interest and really get the independent reading going on. These are the first chapter books my students use. They enjoy the content. They understand the humor. They have a devoted interest to the love of reading. Most parents have told me that they are forced to sit while their child reads aloud to them like we do at school with the utmost expression. One is not able to read Junie B. without screaming due to all of the exclamation points!!
There is some controversy with the content. Junie B. does have a negative attitude. She backtalks and calls classmates and other adults names. She is rarely disciplined, but in class we use these times as an opportunity to discuss her behavior and if it is right or wrong. This has opened the door for discussions on manners and respect, that may not have come up otherwise. Children do need some guidance with these chapter books, of this age that I am speaking of (5-7), for the reading of the words and also the behavior of this character. But the end result has been positive for my students and they have learned to love reading and they go on to other types of literature.

Hi. I am in third grade.I read Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business.I loved this book.Junie stays at her grandma's house with her grandpa.Her father and grandma go too.The next day her grandma returns from the hospital.Junie B's grandma tells her,her brother is the cutest monkey she ever saw.Junie thinks her brother is a monkey so that's what she tells her class. At the end JunieB's parents pick her up from school with her baby brother.That's when she finds out her baby brother isn't a monkey.

My daughter and I have read all of the Junie B. Jones books, and this is one of the best- funny and on-target from start to finish. When Junie B's parents tell her they have a suprise for her, she is disappointed to learn that it will be a new baby, and not a present. Things worsen when mom won't accept Junie B's suggestions for names ("Teeny" being one of them, since the baby will be so small).

But the trouble really begins when Junie B's grandma comes home from seeing the new arrival and refers to him as the "cutest little monkey" she's ever seen. Junie B takes this literally, and goes to school insisting that her new brother is really a monkey. Hilarity ensues- I couldn't stop laughing as my then first-grade daughter read it to me.

In addition to the abundant humor, the book also shows that it is a confusing world out there, and that grownups' behavior is frequently inexplicable. Young readers can identify with Junie B's efforts to navigate through the disappointments and challenges of family and school even as they are entertained by her.

This is a great choice for kids who are just making the switch to chapter books. The chapters are short enough so that new readers will not be overwhelmed, and there are plenty of excellent illustrations to help kids interpret the text, and to provide additional humor.

The Valdemar Companion has many details that would excite any fans of Misty. From the new short story about an "ordinary" herald, interviews with Mercedes and the editor Betsy, a discussion of how the works become music, a description of the online Valdemar where you can become a Herald, the "traveler's guide" where you get a better picture of the landscape, the summaries of all the Velgarth books up to Take a Thief, a discography of all the albums, and a concordance of virtually every character in her books, up to Take a Thief.

Even with all this wonderful information, I wanted more... Other than the wonderful cover art of Vanyel, the only artwork in the Valdemar Companion was the detailed maps of Velgarth. This from the series that would have a picture of the characters every chapter. I wanted more on the myths and legends of Velgarth and how it shaped that world. Perhaps even descriptions of all the different beings in Velgarth (with pictures) like the Companions, gryphons, kree, firecats, bondbirds, etc. Ha! Even a list of Shin'a'in proverbs! In short, I wanted more details of Velgarth, how it was put together, to learn all the details that makes it unique that you can't glean from the novels.

For those who have not read all her books, there will be spoilers. And for those of us who have read all her books, it's nice to have as a reference as you are rereading her books. Though, is it worth the price of a hardback? I suppose it depends on how great your need to have a complete collection...

All in all, I would have preferred if the Companion came out a little later (maybe after Exile's Honor so it could have included any info from that), with more thought on what the readers want.

Okay so this was not absolutely perfect. Who cares? If you want perfect make your own. What this book does is give us (the fans) a place to look up any terms that might be unknown, maps the show the world of Velgarth, and a new short story of Ms. Lackeys. I think it is worth it. Thank you Misty. Without you this book would not have been possible.

THE VALDEMAR COMPANION is exactly what the title says it is, a complete reference book for fans of the series not different than many other similar tomes. It contains a glossary of names and places important to the Valdemar world as well as a synopsis of each book. Besides the standard articles on culture and people, this book also includes the unique element of a well-written novella by Mercedes Lackey, author of the eighteen Valdemar novels. Though clearly for the Valdemar mythos audience, fantasy readers in general will enjoy this companion volume.

Harriet Klausner