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So I’ve had a lot going on for the past, well, several months.  Truthfully I went through something of a depressed stage (trying to figure out “what to do with my life now?”), that was preceded by months of a different type of depression - the kind where you do what you have to do day-to-day, but most of it barely registers except for those extremes: the joy, the bliss, the sorrow...

But most recently I’ve been in super busy mode, having finally (metaphorically) slapped myself to awareness and made myself realize that I could continue to be miserable, or I could do something about it.  So I decided to do just that.  Now my personal life is on something of an upswing, plans and actions are moving along reasonably well in that sphere, and I figured it was time to start working on that “balance” thing.  You know, shaking off the tunnel vision every once in awhile and focusing on something else.

So here I am.

Besides trying to keep up-to-date with “the favorites” on TV: Criminals Minds, Law and Order: SVU, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Bunheads, and Once Upon a Time - I actually haven’t been spending a lot of time watching TV.  (Not to mention that my VOD service has been spotty, and my husband has been monopolizing the DVR with Pawn Stars and Lizard Lick Towing.) But because of how busy I’ve been in other spheres of life, by the time I sit down to watch TV I’ve been lucky lately if I make it through a single episode of anything before I’m passed out, and most likely snoring in my lazy boy.

That said, if you haven’t been keeping up with Once Upon a Time - or are within the set of TV viewers that haven’t watched any of this simply amazing show - you need to take the time to GET CAUGHT UP!  Season 2 has thrown us a bunch of twists, turns and “what the?...” moments, that I honestly think makes Once one of the best dramas on TV right now.  Don’t miss out!

I’ve actually seen a handful of the newest cinema releases lately.... 

The Call - while perhaps not Halle Berry’s best movie ever, it attempts to dig in deep and hook you.  This drama/thriller(??) aims to grip you by your emotions, but mostly missed the mark.  I enjoyed it overall but it’s definitely not a movie that I’ll be clamoring to watch again... ever.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - I was actually really excited to go see this movie.  Both my husband and I loved the first movie when it came out a few years ago, I think we may even have gone to see it twice in the theater, but sadly - Retaliation did not live up to our expectations!  The were very few, if any Joe-gadgets - something that made Rise of the Cobra a distinctive success for me, and in the end Retaliation became just another action movie.  Entertaining, but clearly lacking the WOW factor that we’d expected!

And lastly, The Croods - perhaps one of the best movies I’ve seen so far this year. (Granted there are a couple movies out right now that I’m dying to go to...) This was a fun movie that entertained everyone - from my 4-year old daughter, to her 55-year old grandma!  With Laugh-Out-Loud parts, and sweet and serious tear-jerkers, The Croods will be one pick that will definitely end up on my shelf.

Despite how busy I’ve been lately, one thing that I have spent a considerate amount of time doing is reading.  Mostly because my insomnia has been acting up again and reading is one of only a couple of compassionate activities to partake in at 3:30am.  For the most part I’ve been doing re-reads of favorite series: Jean Johnson’s Sons of Destiny series, Stephanie Laurens’ Bastion Club and Cynster series, The Highlander series and the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, a couple of the novellas from the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan, some Lora Leigh books and some Lara Adrian.  Lots of my favorites and all stories that I would recommend to any and everyone!

Most recently I wrapped up a re-read of the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward - which started and finished with reads of Lover at Last, the newest release in the series and the long awaited story of Blaylock and Qhuinn.  Because I love the BDB novels so much I’m going to leave deeper discussion of this book and it’s place and impact on the series for another time, and just say that I loved it, I recommend it to absolutely everyone and leave it at that.  For now.

In the last couple months I’ve stumbled upon a few new authors (or new to me anyways) and a couple new series that I think have a lot of future potential.  I’m going to wait and talk about them in another update too and I hope you’ll check back to find out who and what has caught my interest now!

And in Fan-Fiction news... I haven’t published anything recently, as anyone who checks or is a fan would know, but I am working on a couple things.  I’m (still) working on the next chapter for The Best is Yet to Come - this story can be alternately easy and difficult to write, and this next part to come has been one of the most strenuous parts to write so far.  Rest assured though that I have not given up on this story though, its just a [hard] labor of love.

I’m also working on a new story.  Well, it’s sort of new.  It’s basically a companion story in the An Ending or a New Beginning world.  I’ve been jotting down a bit here and there, and it’s coming along, but I have to make sure that it matches up to the timeline from An Ending or a New Beginning and that I’m not compromising the original story with anything from the new one.  That is after all one of my FF pet-peeves = when a FF-author creates a world, has a whole bunch of stories that fit into it, but constantly contradicts themselves with the details.  So I’m really trying to make sure that I do it right!

Last but DEFINITELY not least - music.  There are always songs that catch my attention, or ones that I just fall in love with right off.  This song is one of those.

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men

It’s an amazing song, and something of a confusing, messed up video that one YouTube video likened to the ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’... Love, love, love this song!

A Review of The Mage

Cover of The Mage (The Sons of Destiny, Book 8)

The Mage
Jean Johnson
[book 8: Sons of Destiny series]
ISBN: 978-0-425-22594-3

We've watched and waited patiently (or not so patiently as the case may be) for the right time to come along and set the 'Sons of Destiny' free. Now whether the stars have finally aligned, or the Fates have reached an accord, that time is now. The eight brothers of Nightfall, formerly of the county Corvis, are finally free of their curse. Though as we have come to recognize over the past months and years, the "Song of the Sons of Destiny" didn't turn out to be a curse so much as it was, and is, a blessing for the men and women it directly relates to.

The Eighth Son shall set them free:
Act in Hope and act in love
Draw down your powers from above
Set your Brothers to their call
When Mage has wed, you will be all.

In The Mage we see Hope's past struggle to become a person of Kelly's otherworld. [for more details on Kelly, see The Sword - book 1] We watch with delight and some trepidation as she returns to Nightfall and the truth of her origins come out. We observed Morganen's upset and confusion, his understanding and his strength. But most of all, we had a front row seat to witness their love grow and flourish into something that no thing, and no body, could ever break apart.

Jean Johnson has led us on a magical journey of prophesy, love and danger, and in this - the eighth and final book of the series - she finishes up all of the story lines and plot threads that were left hanging throughout the the other books. Nightfall was able to finally call for the 'Convocation of the Gods' and they were officially acknowledged as their own Nation, fully and legally responsible only unto themselves (and the Gods). Though through an ironic twist of fate, Nightfall became not only a Kingdom but an Empire, that now ruled over the brother's homeland of Katan, with Morganen as Katan's King.

Their problems with Mandare and Lord Kemblin Aragol (Earl of the West Marches) are forever solved by the plain fact that as the host-nation for the Convocation it is basically illegal for Mandare to attack them. The Nightfallers issues with water purification are corrected through the hard work of all the Nightfall people and the magical abilities of Danau and Koranen. [see The Flame - book 7 for more about this pair] Dominor and Serina [The Master - book 3] were blessed with the birth of their twins, and Kelly and Saber were finally able to get pregnant.

The Mage was a well written and fantastical conclusion to a series that has kept it's readers and fans (those rabid members of the 'Mob of Irate Torch Wielding Fans') entertained and on the edge of their seats with anticipation. But it has also brought about a sad circumstance - we have no more to wait for, to hope for, for the Son's of Destiny. So it is with a fond farewell that we must bid the Brothers and their now much larger family goodbye. Or at the very least "So long," since I am sure we will all make some return visits to the island and the people on it that we've all come to love.

Before the End Comes - The Sons of Destiny

For some time now I've been reading Jean Johnson's Sons of Destiny series. Initially the first book, The Sword, was one that I picked up on a whim - and what a whim is has been! Immediately I was pulled in to the story, just as Kelly was pulled through the dimensions, and the entire world of Nightfall and the eight brothers (the "sons of destiny") came alive for me. For the past two years I've been following each successive brother through his courtship, meeting each of their mates and drawing the couple into my heart too, and watching the group as a whole as it struggles to make their incipent kingdom of Nightfall in to a thriving, fully recognized, curse free nation.

It's been a trip! So now, before the eighth and final book of the series - The Mage is released tomorrow, I want to take a small stroll down memory lane and touch on each of the stories that have brought us all to where we, and all the current inhabitants of Nightfall Isle, are today.

The Sword
That first fateful, inspiring novel that drew us all in and held us captive to the lives and stories of the eight Corvis brothers. In this novel we watch as Saber - who is morbidly afraid of his curse in the 'Song of the Sons of Destiny' - meets his match in Kelly Doyle. Kelly, a woman who would come from what would be our very own dimension, arrives on Nightfall terrified of what might next befall her. She's spent the last couple months and years of her life struggling just to make ends meet, only to end up being accused of witchcraft and having the perpetrators of such awful accusations attempting to murder her by starting her house on fire in the middle of the night. Fortunately for her Morganen, the eighth and youngest Corvis brother, spies her troubles and uses his magic to rescue her and begin his task of Matchmaking his brothers with their destined mates.

Saber and Kelly suffer through a tumultuous courtship - arguing, avoiding and vaguely disliking eachother. Of course that dislike is a mask for the attraction they have to one another and when they are both poisoned by watersnakes (an inspired, if not a mite disgusting creature) they are forced to deal with each other in very close quarters. The fall out of that incident, obviously, is that they fall absolutely, positively in love with one another. Kelly fights it because she's not sure if she should be staying in Saber's world and Saber fights it because he still fears that it could be the end of his world. But despite their fears and doubts, they do fall and their marriage causes the 'Song of the Son's of Destiny' (which really is a prophecy about the eight brothers that implies dangerous and destructive things could happen if and when they each fall in love) to begin it's unraveling in their lives.

Together Saber and Kelly, and the seven brothers, work together to start the process of saving themselves and giving them all a new lease on life. It is during the foretold 'disaster' that Trevan is shot by a musket and Dominor is abducted from the island.

The Wolf
This second story starts for us during the final days of book one. With Morganen's help, Alys of Devries is able to escape from her uncles clutches and drags herself all the way across the Empire of Katan, through the sea and lands herself right in the path of the man who she's destined for. Wolfer find Alys after she washes up on the shores of Nightfall Isle and as she's always been a friend to the brothers and tells him that she has no where else to go, he takes her up to the palace to be introduced to Kelly and reunited with the other brothers.

Wolfer and Alys have a much easier time of things, and so it's only a matter of days before they are well in love with each other and every one knows it. They do encounter a few snags when Alys's uncles continue to attack the brothers on the isle, going so far as to visit the brother's in a twisted sense of familial duty (one of Alys's uncles is also the brother's uncles-by-marriage). Alys is forced to tell the brothers that she's known about, and been forced to help, her uncles attacks on the isle by taking care of the magical - and sometimes extremely dangerous - animals that have sent to harm them (including those nasty watersnakes that percipitated the eventual fall of Saber and Kelly).

Though Wolfer is hurt that Alys would do something like that, even under duress, they manage to work through the situation without any harm to their relationship. Unfortunately during the final attack on Nightfall by the uncles Evanor is seriously harmed and we see the first seeds for that eventual story.

The Master
At the end of The Sword we saw Dominor abducted by the Mandarites and this books starts there. Almost immediately the Mandarite ship is overtaken by the Natallians (the two countries are at war with each other) and all of the ships crew and passengers, including Dominor, are put up for sale as slaves at auction. It is a situation that Dominor, affectionately and not-so-affectionately known as the Master, is thoroughly embarassed and disgusted by. It is there that Serina finds and purchases him, in the hopes that he is capable of helping her complete her current project as the Guardian of Koral-tai.

Through very percise mathemagics Serina determines that Dominor can indeed help her, that he just might be the perfect man for the position, and with his oath to help her they set out to right the wrong that was inadvertantely causes over a century ago in Natallia - this 'botched magic' is actually the root of the problems between Natallia and Mandaria. So they return to Koral-tai (an interesting nunnery of types) and work at the project. Along the way they are able to contact Dominor's brothers and let them know that he's okay, of course the brother's are then also able to let Dominor know about everything that's happened since he was taken... Including his own twins injury.

Seeing his torment over his twins situation Serina insists that they do their magic and the earliest possible moment so that Dominor will be free to go back to Nightfall to be with Evanor. Of course she doesn't take into account the fact that she'd fallen in love with Dominor and that he had fallen in love with her. She also didn't inform him that she was going to have to end up pregnant. Fortunately for them they've got friends and family that love them and interfere in the situation so that Serina and Dominor can be together, in love, and most importantly - happy.

The Song
We watched in The Wolf as Evanor was injured - losing his voice and his magic - and in The Master we met Mariel - the healer who will use her Song to end his suffering. Dominor convinces Mariel to come to Nightfall with her son, Mikor, and attempt some very complicated healing magic that would actually have to regenerate his twins vocal cords. It doesn't take long once she arrives for Evanor to start wooing her - even with out his voice, or his magic, to aid him. And it doesn't take long before Mariel starts to fall.

With Mariel, Evanor instantly gains all that he's ever dreamed of - a wife and a child, a family, of his own. Once Mariel finally heals him and he's able to tell her just how much she means to him and that he wants to keep her with him forever. Together all the inhabitants of the island help create a new communication tool that everyone can operate and they distribute them amongst themselves - just in the nick of time. With his cryslet on hand, Mikor decides he's now capable of leaving the palace on his own and goes exploring, only to be caught by soldiers who've accompanied the Katani ruling council to the island. The brothers save young Mikor and then they must face the Katani - the end result of which being Kelly 'ringing the bell' and gaining the grace of the Gods to make Nightfall in to it's own true, free nation.

The Cat
After being chased out of their own homes, their own country and continent, after being tracked across land and water Amara of the Shifterai and her sister arrive on the island. Like Alys, they wash up on the beach and after a chance to rest, forage and clean themselves, Amara is discovered by Trevan. Fearing for her sisters safety she allows him to find her alone and then goes with him to the palace to determine whether she and Rora will truly be safe on Nightfall. (Unbeknownst to her, initially, Rora is having her own adventure - see The Storm below...)

She decides after some convincing to take up residence in the palace and Trevan starts his courtship of her almost immediately. From two very different cultures the couple is constantly stumbling over obstacles and contradictary perceptions of how things should be. After a rocky start they are finally able to settle in to some semblance of peace - though Gods-know that it is entirely unlikely that Amara will ever be able to accept the leadership and rule of Kelly, incipent Queen of Nightfall.

Fortunately she does eventually come to understand that while she may never be the queen she was born to be, she can still be a leader among the people of Nightfall. In a confrontation that threatens not only her sister, but all Nightfallers, Amara proves her loyalty to Kelly and Nightfall and shows that she has more than enough power in her own right to protect those she deems worthy.

The Storm
While Amara is being chased by the Cat, her twin sister Rora is chasing the Storm. Night loving Rydan finds being in the presence of others extremely difficult, in fact it's all but impossible for him to enjoy the company of his brothers and their wives. For some strange reason though, Rora's presence doesn't hurt him. And it is through her presence and her love (and that which she hold within her) that he's able to find the strength in himself to rejoin his brothers lives.

Rydan, self-appointed Guardian of the Nightfall Fountain, find solace with Rora. But in loving her, he must give up that which he's been using to define himself - the Nightfall fountain. Of course he only has to give it up temporarily and in exchange he takes on the responsibility of becoming the Guardian of the Living Fountain but it's still a sacrifice... One he does eventually make quite willingly even if it means opening up his underground halls to his brothers.

With Rora's power and his brother's help Rydan is able to defeat the dark powers trying to hunt her down and protect the island as well. It is also through this confrontation that we meet the people of Menomon and the woman who will come next to Nightfall.

The Flame
Koranen has lived in fear of harming any lover he touches from a very young age - when his passions run hot, so does his touch. It's only with his prophesied, destined mate that he knows he'll be able to love freely, so when a group of Aquamancers arrive on the island from Menomon he sets out to find the Water to his Flame. Danau, the highest ranking aquamancer Menomon has to offer, has always suffered from the stigma - and very true reality - that she's too cold to love. Not knowing, and not wanting to care, about Koranen's situation Danau focuses her sights of the desalination system and leaves the field open to the other women that came to Nightfall with her.

Fortunately for both Koranen and Danau, circumstances put the two of them together at the right time and in the right place to discover just what happens when hot meets cold. The couple then works together on the desalination system, along with the other aquamancers, and then together they must discover who murdered one of the Menomonites and bring him or her to justice.

In the end, they find that together there's not much that they can't do and so decide to stick it out with one another. Love and all that stuff, you know....


And that brings us back to today. Or tomorrow, I suppose. What will happen as the Nightfallers continue their efforts to make their island an independent kingdom, fully recognized by man and Gods? Will Rydan and Rora be capable of doing what must be done to unleash the power within her? Will Morganen and Hope fall quickly, deeply, and madly in love with each other, or will theirs be a nice slide in to comfort, love and satisfaction? And what is all the Gods names did Hope mean at the end of The Flame when she said, "I'm home... I'm finally home."

I may not be able to garuntee when I'll post again but you can bet that once I get my hands on a copy of The Mage and have a bit of time to read and digest it, that you'll be hearing from me again...

Can you tell that I can't wait???

[If you want to see more information about the characters, the stories and the author of this series please visit the official website... For costs and purchasing information on any of the books please visit either of the following websites: Chapters, Amazon (USA), Barnes & Noble, or Borders or contact your local bookstore.]